Mum Dad I have something to tell you

No I’m not gay and I haven’t lost my job

I ere were going to have a baby

A glazed stare mouth open as if to speak

What how when, you know what and how but not when

Why the embarrassed conversation between parent and child

Why the embarrassment at the start of this conversation

Is it the confirmation of the act conception?

Or is it the concept of your child as parent

The image of grandparent flashes through your mind

You in a cardigan smelling of cigarettes and lavender

Your grandchild smelling of Johnson’s and sick

The weeks go by starting with morning sickness

Then that pregnancy glow of wellbeing

Turning into enormity and wanting it to be over

On the day the baby chooses it bursts out into the world

Thank god it won’t remember the carnage it has caused

The stretch marks the tears and tears

Out into the world believing it is god

A blessing to its family to be worshiped from above

Now the family has to teach this god that they are a lesser deity