Psalm

For you are like their parent

                                       who is never pleased

                  and they are like your parent

                                                            who cannot stay angry

For you are like a child

For age after age

                                       they conceive you

                  and despite the pain of birth

                                                            they bring you forth

For they call you perfect   

                                       though your hands are missing

                  and though your heart does not beat

                                                            they give you a name

For they remember you

For they hold you blameless

                                       in their sorrow

                  though they were surely happiest

                                                            before you arrived

For your identical twin

                                       they name Silence

                  and when they feed Silence

                                                            he grows

For they love Silence

                                       as they would have loved you

                  even more perhaps

                                                            as old age comes

and they forget

                                       the sound of your cry

                  and where the exact spot was

                                                            they spread your ashes

and how those ashes

                                       tasted

                  when the wind blew them

                                                            into their mouths

Father in their dreams

                                       they worry still

                  perhaps it is you

                                                            who lives among them

and not Silence

                                       after all   

                  mistakes happen

                                                            after all

how would anyone know

and the midwives

                                       forgive them

                  forgive them

                                                            were only human