The Foundling – Mary Gauthier

A foundling, a foundling
Looking for home
Wanders through darkness
And travels alone

A baby, unwanted, unloved and unblessed
Left on a doorstep, an unbidden guest
A shivering shadow, a child with no name
Severed, surrendered, sinking in pain

Conceived in the gale of a ruinous storm
Partially killed, partially born
Abandoned, abandoned, falling through space
With nobody’s eyes and nobody’s face
A foundling

A child disconnected who no longer cries
With a prisoner’s stare and an orphan’s eyes
A free floating phantom held together by skin
A small helpless stranger, a sigh in the wind

Washed into this world in fever and flood
Tears remorse, sorrow and blood
Abandoned, abandoned, left at the gate
Cut loose, untethered, tattooed by fate
A foundling