The baby was left at the hospital door-
abandoned.
The child was perfect in every way except
for a cleft palette.
She became a ward of the state and was
placed in a foster home.
She was just a cipher, a commodity in the
adoption market.
There were people who wanted to adopt, but
who wants a deformed child?
Failing to bond the pretty little girl bounced
from foster home to home.
School was brutal. She often would cry her
self to sleep.
The state said they had spent enough money-
no cosmetic surgery.
At thirteen she took comfort in the arms of an
older man- a father she never had.
A year later she was pregnant and too ashamed
to go to counseling.
She would birth her baby and leave it to others
at the hospital door.