Hello, my name is Malinda.
My first abortion was at 19 and the second at 21. I was unstable, uniformed, easily influenced young woman.
I trusted the message that newspapers, magazines, and television said about me and abortions.
That I would not be a good mother and that a baby would be the beginning of the end of my life. That abortion was my freedom.
Just a quick visit to the Civic Hospital and …
Baby Gone
Wake up! Time to go.
Everything done. Here’s your clothes.
How’d they do it? I don’t’ know.
This I do know.
Baby gone.
I feel their souls inside of me.
They could not be sucked out of me.
I gave “them” permission assuredly,
To end the life depending on me.
Baby gone.
There is more to the story than this.
There was a life of induced bliss.
A life of “pour me a drink” and “pass that joint”.
A life of “I don’t care” and nothing matters”.
Glad that’s over. What? You know.
Baby gone.
There’s millions more like them.
No beginning and no end.
Products of shells of would be mothers and fathers.
Regretting to the end.
Wondering what if? What if?
Baby gone.
Baby food on shelves in stores.
Pretty little dresses on display,
Fathers in the park with boys.
Quick, look the other way.
Baby gone.
Christmas after Christmas.
Let’s get it over.
No children’s laughter to sustain us.
No need to change us.
Baby gone.
There is no going back.
There is no bringing back.
There is no taking back.
There is only looking back.
Baby gone.
Will the silence ever stop?
Will the regret never end?
Will I be punished for what I did?
Be alone in the end?
Baby gone.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want you.
Convinced the time wasn’t right.
Like we could meet up somewhere later.
Then I could give you a life. WRONG!
Baby gone.
Led by deceit and following a lie.
A heartbeat shouts “I’M HERE”!
“Give me a chance and I might give you a life”!
But that won’t happen now.
Baby gone.
Now I feel arms around me.
Holding me up strong.
They are my brothers and my sisters,
Who are like me and they say “yes”,
“Baby gone”.
They say “look to God for forgiveness”.
“Go to Him for your peace”.
“You can still have these things”,
“But the truth will always be “,
“Baby gone”.
Ah, but there is something I can do.
to protect rights of the unborn.
I can take ridicule, I can take on the chore.
I can be a voice.
I WILL BE SILENT NO MORE!
Because, baby gone.
Baby gone.
Malinda Tibbetts
Sunday, March 17, 2019