I wish I could address this to you by name,
but I don’t know your name.
I’m hoping you are my child,
but as of now, I have no child.
I have no prospect of giving birth,
but I haven’t given up on motherhood.
So, this is a first letter to my child,
but if it finds its way to another child,
at least it will have an audience.
I want to tell you about me in these letters,
but you could also read my poems.
I hope all of them will be in a future book,
but for now they are mostly in my notebooks.
I want to apologize for this world we gave you,
but I wish I could say I did more to better it for you.
I want to write you things that you will cherish,
but that is a tall order for any writer.
I want you to be a reader of poems and novels<
but I really want you to read me if I’m no longer here.
And if you are someone else’s child and not my own,
I want these letters to make you wish I was your mother.
This poem first appeared in Poets Online, September 2021
Milneville 