Guilt

A baby is born with his father’s eyes, his grandmother’s chin and his auntie’s cheeky smile.

But when you look close, and stare awhile at this child you brought into the world you are washed with guilt and sad denial. Because one day people may look at him and no longer see his father’s eyes or his aunty’s smile.

Instead they may then only see the unwanted gift that you have left there just for him, hidden in the deepest crevices of DNA, the biological sin you tried to hide is ready to surprise on his weakest night.

How could you tell him that the genes you shared were so deeply flawed and full of despair, he looks at his reflection and sees his father’s eyes, yet the only reminder of his mother he will ever find is in his own recreation of her broken mind.