The Seed

boy meets girl
and he rocks her world
days pass, then years
and it's time for rings and 'my dear's
soon enough baby makes three
then four and five are we
but something goes wrong
a sour note in a sweet song
it's papers and judges
settlements and grudges
the tree branches twist
hands clenched, fists
a little girl is lost
wondering if she paid for this cost
unable to understand
why love has shifted like the sand
why her family tree is burning
and why pain is all she's learning
her family looms, none too discreetly
the essence of what it is to break so completely
she wonders year by year
why it is she's here
how she's supposed to grow
with what she has to show
one little black poisoned seed
that has let her do nothing but bleed
I am her, she is me
my mother's gift is that seed.