January 22, 1973

O thou, whose eyes were closed in death’s pale night,
Ere fate revealed thee to my aching sight;
Ambiguous something, by no standard fixed,
Frail span, of naught and of existence mixed;
Embryo, imperfect as my tort’ring thought,
Sad outcast of existence and of naught;
Thou, who to guilty love first ow’st thy frame,
Whom guilty honour kills to hide its shame;
Dire offspring! formed by love’s too pleasing pow’r!
Honour’s dire victim in a luckless hour!
Soften the pangs that still revenge thy doom:
Nor, from the dark abyss of nature’s womb,
Where back I cast thee, let revolving time
Call up past scenes to aggravate my crime.
Two adverse tyrants ruled thy wayward fate,
Thyself a helpless victim to their hate;
Love, spite of honour’s dictates, gave thee breath;
Honour, in spite of love, pronounced thy death.

- Anonymous, Epitaph on a Child Killed by Procured Abortion