Pink Baby

Today Annie and Michelle are grieving
and I grieve with them
as I remember you
the most gorgeous
little doll dressed
all in pink
laying so quietly in your crib

Something about your perfect beauty
etched its way into my memory
You have haunted me little one
since that first moment I saw you
I kept thinking of you
with a family
happy...growing...healthy

or more realistically
realizing--knowing the truth
that you had been condemned to
orphanage life
dropped on the doorstep
of this unregulated place
where children come and rarely leave

This is no place for babies
especially the fragile ones
Only the very strong survive
And for what?
They can't be adopted because
usually there are no records--
So they stay and grow up in this place
where the older ones are
already in their twenties
and opportunities are so few
so what do they do?

Would I ever wish that for you?
Life here is a horrible paradox
To have been released from the hardship
is no hardship
You are in a better place
Where your beauty will never fade

Pink flower you bloomed on earth
but you will blossom in heaven




THIS SOUNDS LIKE A HORRIBLE PACIFYING PLATITUDE, EVEN NOW AS I READ IT, BUT IF I CAN'T HOPE IN THIS, I'M NOT SURE I COULD SURVIVE HERE VERY WELL. THERE'S JUST TOO MUCH DIFFICULTY.