Family

I cannot speak for men who parent alone

For they are indeed a rarity.

The women who by the multitudes

Take up the solitary role of raising children

Without help from the father who relinquishes

The sacred trust his children would have given,

And upon which the mother could have relied.

So many still refuse to lose their joy

For all that lies before families

As we shelter in close to keep out

The relentless jeerings of doubt and shame.

We strive to live as examples of steadfast surety

In our belief that aloneness might begin like a curse,

But ends as relief that we are finally free to be ourselves.