"Abortions
never let you forget"
Gwendolyn
Brooks
It is true, those unborn babies hang around
the mother that expelled them
much longer than regular
children do
tweaking on their dresses and
begging
to be bought something, to be
fed again,
to be held to be loved.
And sometimes I turn to mine,
gather them up, resigned—
my arms full of their absence.
from High Maintenance