… no child left behind, a fantasy notion. Laughable in any of its intended meanings because there is always someone left behind or left feeling as if they have been. It’s one of the many unfortunate truths we learn to accept as we grow in life, as we experience. But when the subject is in fact a child, all they know is that they’ve been abandoned—forsaken of love, of chances, of answers. All of which are searched for in made up places because something concrete is always missing, be it tangible or not.

Babies don’t ask to be born but so many of them have to beg to be regarded for more than just a moment once they are. Too many struggle to be better than the people who leave them feeling the emptiest, to be better than the person that left them stranded …

Life’s a Gamble

To him

The moment of my conception came and went

He came, then went

On with his life

Cycling through the nights

Nothing from yesterday in today

Only looking to what’s next for tomorrow

But for me, that moment created a lifetime

One full of many lies

And just one truth

Daddy didn’t want me

He gave up on having a Daddy’s Little Girl

Because his not-so-Pretty Women

Called him Daddy all the same

But their minds were different

And some brains was all he wanted

Too many blips on his radar

For him to realize that the one related to the focal point

Is fighting to be somebody

He traded kindergarten graduation

For a pair of dice and some measly chips

Because despite loving to gamble

He wouldn’t take a chance

At ending his life for another one he created

I wasn’t worth one of those

Slot-machine pennies

I only got a BlackJack’s hit and split

Double the ante on anything

That could possibly pay off

More than having a child

Like standing on the same corners

Of the neighborhood blocks I avoid

Selling women and drugs

To dumb boys

Whose fathers never taught them a damn thing either

Except that empty promises and unborn memories

Taste like rejection

And undying love and selfless sacrifices

Sound more like fairytales than the lives we live

So

While the world is feeding its abandoned babies

Spoonfuls of falsehoods

My undeniable truth

Is clinging to my heart

While it tries to forget that

Daddy didn’t want me