Dustbin Baby

Concerning the problem with HIV infected mothers who feel their only option is dump their baby in a dustbin after birth, and all the delicate issue surrounding these tragedies.

Dustbin Baby

 

Slick Rick always up to tricks

This time his trick did stick,

And he passed on one-two-three.

 

She hid it under jerseys

She’d pretend that she still bled,

Little babies, already good as dead.

 

The moment came in the dead of night

She thought that she would die of fright

It pulled and ripped and out it slipped

She stumbled, fumbled, her heart it tripped

to see what she had made.

 

For a fleeting second she held him tight

Held him tight with all her might

Then into a rubbish packet he did go

His crying would have hurt her so,

If she had only allowed herself to listen.

 

Smothered in the blackened gloom

He shushed himself to await his doom

Had he come too late? Too soon?

Just another wasted boon.

Author's Note

I have to write a short anthology for my portfolio. It's my last year of studying and I'm hoping to submit my best work so any commentary would be appreciated, provided it's constructive :) anybody pick up on the intertextual reference in my poem?