Rift On Tony Ogunlolo's Fine Poem 'A Rape Child.' Poem by David McLansky

Be not dismayed
By such a mother
The vessel of my birth
Also betrayed
As a maternal lover;
Cursing me in my crib
For my father
Complaining of a dirty bib,
I too was such a bother.
Her hatred made my heart
Beat faster;
How could I survive
Such a maternal disaster?
And yet I survived
Her cruelty and neglect,
I surmised,
I was naturally hardy
I suspect;
The deprivation I endured
Left me with a life theme
To find the love I was denied;
How obsessive were my schemes;
I knew many loves
Who didn't seem to last
Oh the torment that I knew
Renewed the present from the past;
Until I found
A woman of my dreams;
Whose love was constant
As the sky and sea;
How patiently she loves me.
She makes me glad that I was born
Though ripped from my mother's womb;
Which almost was a living tomb
Mid her curses and her scorn.
I hope you found that love exists
Beyond the prenatal state
And that you proved that love persists
Beyond a mother's hate.