TELL THE CHILDREN WE'RE NO GOOD 10 Poem by Leonard Nolens

Tell the children we're no good.
We beget them, then cravenly turn
Into helpless beings, and merge
With the person we seek by breeding new people.
We create problems to deliver ourselves

From ourselves. Someone else takes the tab for my high.

We're fond of giving those absent our own
Face, the address, the birthday, the pet name
Of the one we're missing. And we make a daughter
Of our loss. And we suckle a son
Whose thirst repeats us in irretrievable ways.