NaPoWriMo #8: why

Have you ever had a kid ask you a question, only to follow up the answer with "But, why?"

Yeah, me too.


The Hard Questions

They are the ones
who ask me the hard questions.

Not
“Where is the pain
on a scale of one to ten?”
(Between 7 and 8.)

Or
“What are your plans
for the baby’s remains?”
(I need to give that some thought.)

Or
even those questions
disguised as statements,
“We’ve got a narrow window here
to test for genetic abnormalities.”
(Like I told you before,
I’m not interested in testing.)

No
they are the ones
who ask me
“Mom, why did our baby die?”
(I don’t know, honey.)

“Which parts weren’t growing right?”
(The doctors couldn’t tell.)

“Will we have another baby?”
(We’ll see, sweetheart. We’ll see.)

They are the ones
who ask me the hard questions
questions that school me
with answers I don’t know
outcomes I can’t control.
(We’ll see, sweetheart. We’ll see.)