day EIGHT HUNDRED and THIRTY TWO

A POEM FROM THE BIRTHDAY GIRL!!!! 

A Woman Should Have Kids

You will regret it,

they say.

You will regret it

when you are flying over the biggest ocean in the world.

You will regret it

when you are standing at Shakespeare’s grave,

or looking at the impossibly small violin that belonged

to a three year old Mozart.

You will regret it,

they say.

You will regret it

when you have finished your novel

or eaten all the leftovers from the fridge,

you will regret it when your house is not clean

and the books start to form dangerous piles on the floor.

You will regret it when you spend the afternoon painting.

You will regret it,

they say.

You will regret it

because it’s natural, it’s important,

how can you go through your whole life

being just a woman

and not

a mother

the holiest of all holy.

You owe it

to yourself

to the world

to keep this grinding machine going.

You owe it

to your husband,

to your in-laws

to your mother

who just wants to be a grandmother.

This is the role of woman.

You get this time,

this body,

this life,

for just so long

and then you give it up

for everyone else.

You give it up to care and mend and tend

to everyone’s needs but your own.

It is the sacrifice that women are expected to make

blade in hand

on the alter of their own lives,

severing their own life

down to a half-life.

--Ally Malinenko