Street Baby

I ran into an angel

More like she ran into me

didn’t even reach my knees,

face,

hands

clothes

caked with dirt

A street baby

Hugging my legs

she looks up to my face

Baby teeth

Baby hair

Baby face

And she squealed

‘give me’

I squatted to my knees

In the middle of the street

Street Baby

into her hair I murmured all sorts of blessings

Dressed bangles of aspiration around her dainty wrists

Bejeweled her little ear lobes

with the hopes of her going to

school and

learning the alphabet,

loving the classics of

Naguib Mahfouz

instead of shiny jewels,

be nimble with her mind

instead of her fingers,

rob meanings

& definitions

& knowledge

instead of pockets

Street Baby

poignant eyes

Put a crack to my chest

So I smashed it

Broke open my rib cage

where I cradled

her and

her mother and

the baby

latched to her breast,

stuffed all those that I could

till there was no room left,

swallowed with it all the pain,

the angst,

and regret

Call it a

Jesus Christ Complex

Street Baby

I Reached into my empty pocket

And gave the world to her