You Lucky Thing You

The odds against being born are astronomical.

So the thing then is to rejoice if you’ve had the

good fortune to be born. And again I say rejoice.

After you’re born though, that’s when the living

really starts and god knows living’s not for sissies.

You can be gentle with yourself when the night

grows quiet but when the sun’s overhead you’d

best have some grit in your mouth so you can spit

it out or swallow it or simply smile it for display.

The truth is there are people with radiant teeth

in tailored suits who’d rather you not be here,

people who, as Kavanaugh warned, slink around

to suck your childhood dry, people who wish you’d

not been born. Yet you were, you lucky thing you.

You may have never won a cakewalk or the Lotto

or found a $20 bill in a used copy of The Bluest Eye.

But you beat the odds once. It could happen again.