Motherhood

by Meryl Natchez

I like it that they give robot babies to teens

to simulate parenthood,

that the robots are programmed to cry if they

aren’t held. I think the teen mother has

to hold them—no one else can make them

shut up—but maybe I am only

imagining that, maybe that’s a level of need

only real babies demonstrate.

Because a robot can’t prepare you.

Even if it cries all the time,

it isn’t wired

into your nervous system.

You can’t imagine the despair and rage snarled within

the besotted adoration

that tiny body wrenches from you

at birth.

This is the blood vow,

the one you cannot break.

You can barely acknowledge, even to yourself,

the force of the urge for escape,

and you’re lying if you say you don’t

understand how anyone could bash

a baby’s brains against a wall.

With luck,

you don’t do it.

But still, you understand.

* * * * *

“Motherhood” first appeared in the anthology: The Mamas and the Papas, City Works Press, 2010