Disposable Children



He came to us the newly adopted laughing boy,
A joy to the kids and babies at our daycare.
The laughing boy went home to loving arms at end of day.
A mama’s joy.

As days went by the laughing slowed.
A little boy misses his baby brother, another foster child,
Another home.
Mama’s joy unites them at last.
The two adopted laughing boys.

The laughing boys played hard.
Their love was shared.
But boys come home at night, to a quiet house,
And loudly played and played…

And mama’s joy turned angry. Quiet time is what she craved.
Parent’s get tired from work.
Stresses build and
Become unbearable.
Call the agency, contracts broken
We can’t handle this, we can’t handle two, loud, noisy boys.

The agency arrives and tells the boys.
Little boys go where they are told
They never make friends, they are bought and sold
Passed around and loved from home to home,
To grow into the realm of the crowded and alone.

August 29, 2006

About this poem

This was a story I heard from my mother's day care. The first boy was a joy to see play. A very pleasant kid.

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Written on August 29, 2006

Submitted by mrdayv727 on June 26, 2023

57 sec read
69

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXXA XXBXC XXXX XXXXXC CDDBX X
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 940
Words 193
Stanzas 6
Stanza Lengths 4, 5, 4, 6, 5, 1

David Normand

David Normand is a poet living in the Columbia River Gorge in the Pacific Northwest. He spent 25 years in Southern California before finding his home in Oregon. more…

All David Normand poems | David Normand Books

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"Disposable Children" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2025. Web. 1 Mar. 2025. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/163593/disposable-children>.

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