Did I cry
Within my mother's womb,
Each time
I dreamed of my life
To come?
Did I kick
Out at the blackness
Which swallowed me
Both then
And then still to come?
I would have cried
But my tears
Could not flow
Til I was grown
And had suffered so.
Had I known, had I known--
I would not have grown,
Would not have come
To see this world.
But the womb
Was my forgetting,
And the pain of birth
My mother's
Vain attempt to spare
Me the pain of Life
I should later know.
But had I known,
No one
Could have made me go.
4/2/76
© Fred O'Bryant. All rights reserved.