Will you weep for her as the story she tells becomes a mountain of shame? 

A so-called celebration turned into isolation 

She worries, prays joy will replace fear, waits… 

Will you weep for her as forced bedrest takes over her livelihood? 

As bills pile up and her body rebels 

Will you weep for her as she postpones dreams for dimes?  

You can do it all so they say…and a burden she does not wish to be 

Will you weep for her as she feigns faint smiles to onlookers? 

Wanting desperation to go undetected. 

Will you weep for her as shaky supports dwindle? 

As the once upon a time prince becomes a coward 

Abandonment all too familiar on repeat 

And she wonders, can I survive this? 

Life, liberty, & the pursuit of happiness blur into murky waters 

Will you weep for her as her body stretches overcome with primal pain 

Screaming without an anchor as she squeezes the nurses hand 

The unborn becomes born 

Pressed against her swollen chest 

A paradox of joy and fear 

Will you weep for her as she struggles through sleepless nights 

Help is fleeting and more help breaks the bank

Without a compass, a captain, or crew mates, navigation is daunting 

She sings the only lullaby sang once to her by a kind face long gone 

How do you build a family when family has never been defined?

Will you weep for her as she scavenges for discounts 

Welcoming kind hearts, but not wanting to be anybody’s charity case 

Diapers, formula, doctor’s visits, clothes and more clothes 

Faced with questions, dilemmas… 

How to support a child without work?  

How to support a child with work? 

Sometimes she wants to run away from it all.  

Sometimes she gets lost in darkness.  

Do you weep for her as she grasps for her worth? 

In a society failing to treasure the crown of motherhood 

Will you weep for the child as he grows 

Mother working two jobs to sustain 

Never has he known a father 

Protective of his mother, hiding his shadows… 

She doesn’t need to know 

Desperate for belonging, he strays 

Will you weep for the child turned into a man 

Who found solidarity in the streets 

They told him he was one of them 

They told him he was strong 

He writes his mother from behind steel bars 

Will you weep for her?  

A mother with the burden of a broken heart 

Will my baby boy make it? She cries. 

Don’t they remember they wept for him in my belly?  

Who weeps for him now? 

Who wipes his tears? My tears? 

She falls to her knees each night  

Praying to God that her baby be protected 

That she might have the strength to carry on 

And she does with tired eyes and bones that feel brittle 

One. Day. At. A. Time.