Family Song

I

I shouldn’t have been born.

With a knitting needle

in her womb,

my mother

did not want me to be.

II

A knitting needle

in the uterus

of my mother.

Her strength saved me.

My current weakness.

III

I have only love for my mother.

Only that.

IV

My father wanted to leave us.

He left.

V

I run to hug him.

He kisses me.

He’s grown a beard,

smells different.

The first memory of my life.

The last memory of my father.

VI

It’s admirable:

my mother could with three children

I cannot even with myself.

VII

He died, my father.

I never could call him

“father.”

VIII

I do not like families.

I avoid them.