my environmentalist friend calls me
a breeder
she’s one of those vocal ones
on child-free Facebook groups sharing memes
that poke fun at children
and articles tagged under “kids as massive
carbon footprint emissions”
she also says she loves my daughter
like her own
and we are her family
well I suppose
that is what family is
not some namesake or blood-drawn thread
but the certainty of disliking a piece
of something and loving
it enough
to die for it
This was first published in The Alien Buddha’s The Buddha Gets Rejected 2 print anthology on February 14, 2023. You can purchase a copy here.
