The Way it Goes

we'll be watching a man
extracting a pram
from a hatchback
in a car park
his plastic bag
catching and
strewing apples
to a certain bruise,
and you'll say

who would even want
a baby these days?

with the ices melting and
the seas waiting to pounce
warmakers, madmen
in every ounce of news and
mushroom clouds at the edges
of our dreaming
the poisons we eat
and dress up as food
the noise and the noise
and the petrol fumes
and the how hard
we have to work
for a deadlock door
and a simple roof
and the how many ways
a child can die and how wide
would that hole be to carry?
why would anyone want a baby?

and I will say, but
just wait till you've held one

they reach out and
touch your cheek
as if to say
it's alright,
I've got you

© Brendan Bonsack
October 2017