CERTIFICATE OF IRREVOCABILITY
I.
Dear
female child mom
do hereby certify I miss you
did duly execute, varry
acknowledge, and deliver much evvy
an instrument in writing day and night
wherein and whereby I either criy
absolutely, or thik about
permanently, and irrevocably you
released, surrendered and relinquished I whish
custody, guardianship, nun of this
and control
all my natural, legal, and parental rights
and privileges of whatever hapind betwing us
with respect to the child, including all my rights I awes miss
in respect to you
the child
II.
release, surrender, and relinquish
lliberat(ion) forfeit(ure) abandon(ment)
unfetter(ing) sacrific(ial) forsake(n)
untie(d) los(t) reject(ion)
loosen(ing) misplace(d) eliminat(ion)
untangle(d) forget(ting) remov(al)
unravel(ing) neglect(ful) delet(ion)
fail(ure) avoid(ance)
expunge(d)
miscarr(iage)
eras(ure)
elu(sive)
III.
what you feel/felt the first time you hold/held me. little accident. I am/was not your first
child. nor the first you give/gave away. if you wish/wished me back
into the womb, if your signature is/was the sound of someone else's voice,
the court's voice, irrevocable. do/have I ever live(d)
outside your first wish for me. sometimes I feel I am/was half- ghost, flitting
between trees a short distance from the village asking to be let in
loved, or else liberated
from this half- life, this always asking, this hardly knowing
where to put my shaking
hands.
Published April 2023, in the first issue of Scavengers Lit. Cover photograph by Darla Mottram.