My Dear Little Girl Poem by Kerri White

My Dear Little Girl,

Before you came to "be, "

I think I knew that I needed you

to free my mind of all the things

that suffocated and drained me,

to remind me that I was strong enough

to put them back into their placeholders of irrelevant non-existence.

Then again, I feel like I was robbed-

that though your impact was immeasurable,


you simply weren't here long enough

to make me dismiss everyone and everything

that existed solely as methods of weighing me down.

And now, I'm not okay at all, but it's just not your little fault.

People say that happiness is within the self,

and, for some people, I believe that's true.

But, for others like your mama, girl,

She just has to have a few people to love,

who feel for her the same unbreakable dedication—

who make her feel appreciated —

like she's valued just as much as she valued you.

I don't mean to put you on the spot,

after all, you were never even born.

But the day I found out that your birthday

would be the hardest day of my life

was the day I realized that I don't belong here —

not with these people with these selfish faces —

not with their lies or all their disgraces,

and, most certainly, not without you.