to some having children
while battling a disease
should be made illegal.
but to us.
to my wife and me,
it’s the love of our children
that makes life worthwhile.
that keeps us from giving up.
that gives us hope for a cure.
to be faced with death.
reminded daily of it.
time ticking into brain and tissue.
it is our hope of living fully again
through them. fully healed.
born vicariously anew
through their free will.

for the sick and the poor.
children are much much more
than a burden on the Earth.
much more than just mouths to feed.
they are love incarnate.
the future.
the past.
every precious moment.
clinging on, to make it last.
another chance to get it right.
even while the world is pushed
towards its brink.
every day less water to drink.

to the sick and the poor
children are wealth beyond
any measure of gold depleted.
any measure of life
this world might support.
for to us their minds hold the solution.
unborn Tesla’s and Einstein’s revolution.
to one day rise above this planet.
escape its gravity and find
a new home where poverty and disease
are never to be repeated.