An Acknowledgement of Sorts

We were assured that you would arrive in 1999,
a statistical milestone,
THE 6 BILLIONTH BABY.

So I asked my friend, The Naked Poet,
did he know where or who you were.
Wise as he is, he didn't know where you were
which told me where you weren't.

Here.
Had you been here,
we'd have had a grand celebration for you.
You'd have been showered with Baby Gap clothes
and brand name toys and 
a prepaid university scholarship.
Your picture would have graced Time
and the world would have known your face.

No, you can't be Here,
I'd have heard of you. 
You have to be There,
2nd, 3rd world, poor and of colour
The odds have you being Indian or Chinese.
The odds have you dying before your first birthday.
The odds are insurmountably
against your making your 5th birthday.

So, if you are the odds and thus a poor, female
child of colour,
I will never know of you for the world 
doesn't value you.
And, on this, your 1st birthday year
I say a prayer and I send you some dreams.

And, if you, along with 14 million of your 
international playmates,
have not survived this year,
I grieve,
for the loss of a child, is a loss to the world.

~A Friend of Naked Poet~

( Regina, Sk, Canada )
PS. it can't be more than an acknowledgement...it can't 
be specific because I don't know who or where the child 
is...and it can't be more than of sorts since I don't even 
know if the child is alive... 

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