I've got a son that never came

Mark Thouin | 7/31/2001 | Mark Thouin

[Night Hides Not]

I wrote a very strong poem some 27 years ago about a "son I never had". At the time my wife was pregnant with our first child and the Roe vs Wade and just come to its conclusion. I was going to be a father and was very excited. Just the thought of someone getting an abortion was beyond my comprehension!

The poem was found about 20 years later in the piano bench and my youngest son wrote a song to it. He sang it several times in church and you could hear a pin drop when he was finished. I even had a lady come up to me and with a "I'll slap you in the face" look and tell me how sad the song was and that it didn't belong in church.

My wife and I have three beautiful children and we just became grandma and grandpa this past July 4th. We never once thought of abortion as an alternative. Starting from conception...we have loved them all every day of there lives! I was asked to post the poem...so here goes.

I've got a son that never came.
One that flew kites and arrow-planes.
One that danced in the springtime rains.
Don't know why or who's to blame.
But I've got a son that never came.

Bullfrogs and butterflies he'll never see.
He'll stroll through an open field, but not with me.

There was a time his heart beat strong.
It beat with rhythm as in a song.
And to me his love belonged.
Don't know why or what went wrong.
But there was a time his heart beat strong.

It's left in my mind and my heart will tease.
There's no love in my life for my son and me.

Before I had a chance to fight.
They took my son up a flight.
To a room to take his life.
Don't know why I had no rights.
Before I had a chance to fight.

Then five months early they stole him from his womb.
Laid him in a corner and watched him die in his tomb.

But for one split second I thought I heard him cry...
"I'm gonna have to leave you now. I love you Dad. Goodbye."

[Night Hides Not]

This beautiful poem was posted back on 7/31/2001. I wanted to repost/reformat it for the new software so that I'd be able to bookmark it.

It is especially poignant for me, thanks to my lovely wife who has presented me with two wonderful sons: Richie (12), and Nathan (one week), plus a most-of-the-time-wonderful 14 year old daughter (Shauna - just kidding, sweetie).

Thank you, Mark, for these beautiful words.

[Free the USA]

Bump List

[Joe 6-pack]

Very well done...

While not confronting the tragedy of abortion as directly as your fine lyrics, I've found the following W.B. Yates poem a prophetic, if not subliminal indictment of the macabre practice...

The Stolen Child

WHERE dips the rocky highland
Of Sleuth Wood in the lake,
There lies a leafy island
Where flapping herons wake
The drowsy water rats;
There we've hid our faery vats,
Full of berrys
And of reddest stolen cherries.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wave of moonlight glosses
The dim gray sands with light,
Far off by furthest Rosses
We foot it all the night,
Weaving olden dances
Mingling hands and mingling glances
Till the moon has taken flight;
To and fro we leap
And chase the frothy bubbles,
While the world is full of troubles
And anxious in its sleep.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Where the wandering water gushes
From the hills above Glen-Car,
In pools among the rushes
That scare could bathe a star,
We seek for slumbering trout
And whispering in their ears
Give them unquiet dreams;
Leaning softly out
From ferns that drop their tears
Over the young streams.
Come away, O human child!
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than you can understand.

Away with us he's going,
The solemn-eyed:
He'll hear no more the lowing
Of the calves on the warm hillside
Or the kettle on the hob
Sing peace into his breast,
Or see the brown mice bob
Round and round the oatmeal chest.
For he comes, the human child,
To the waters and the wild
With a faery, hand in hand,
For the world's more full of weeping than he can understand.

-William Butler Yeats

I've had it on my home page for some time now..

[mdittmar]

STOPP International

Operation Outcry

[Joe 6-pack]

PING!

[lds23]

Now you went and made me cry. Beautiful words. I thank God every day for my 4 children.

[Night Hides Not]

VERY impressive home page. Thanks for your service, and of course, the poem!

[Sabertooth]

Some Friday night poetry...

(((ping))))

[Night Hides Not]

Bless you and your family...now that I've made you cry, hopefully this will make you smile:

Take the Test - Are You Insane?

[Former Fetus]

So beautiful, so sad... and so true! It should be "required" reading for a woman considering an abortion.

[My Favorite Headache]

Very Nice....

[anniegetyourgun]

AGYG <----overwhelmed with sadness for all the little boys and girls who never were in this life.....

[Brad’s Gramma]

Thank you!!!!

[Aquamarine]

When I was a teen-ager I washed the inside windows in a medical building. When I went into this big room with all these beds lined up and the windows painted on the outside for privacy I sensed something very wrong and sad in that room. I learned later that I had been in an abortion clinic. I was not surprised that the doctors had not given life but taken it in that room. I've never forgotten how an empty room can tell so much. That was the saddest place I've ever been.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you for the heads up!

[Lizavetta]

In a PacifiCare (HMO) guide I was looking through tonight, I noticed that they're not calling it abortion anymore.... it's a Voluntary Interruption of Pregnancy.

[BigStick]

VERY impressive home page. Thanks for your service, and of course, the poem!

Likewise, from BigStick. I lost one child the difficult way, and one son to God's way. But aren't all ways difficult ways? Two sons I still have, now grown men. Both were military, one a West Pointer and the other a USAFA graduate. The latter cross-commissioned into the Army with the 82nd Airborne and spent some time with the Rangers. The elder was an Abrams tanker. I see you, too, did some swingin' in the air!

Stay well, Joe.

[Joe 6-pack]

"I see you, too, did some swingin' in the air!"

Breeze between the knees...Congrats on both your boys...You've got to be proud! As an MP captain in Korea, I had considered trying an interservice transfer to USAF OSI. The AF doesn't have a warrant officer corps, per se, and, as far as Criminal Investigation and Counter Intel, they tend to let their commissioned officers get a lot more hands on, as opposed to the Army where the commissioned officers tend to plan, supervise and direct. I interviewed with the AFOSI commander at Osan, an AF 0-6...who was a West Point grad that had reclassed to the AF! Ultimately, my chain of command, "convinced," me I didn't want to attempt an interservice transfer...

...I've since found my calling in the private sector.

[babygene]

I like it. Here's one my father in law wrote...

NO BIRTHDAY

I never had a birthday,

A party or a cake;

Never had a chance to play,

or watch the sun awake.

I ne'er beheld the seasons fair--

Saw winter, spring, or fall;

Or felt a brush of summer air,

Or heard a wildbird call.

I never saw a lark in flight,

Beheld a flowering tree;

Or gazed upon the stars at night--

Nor sailed upon the sea.

No chance had I to go to school,

And be with girls and boys,

Go swimming in a shady pool,

Or make a little noise.

And Christmas joys were not for me,

Ne'er would a New Year ring;

I'll never gather 'round a tree,

And happy carols sing.

But most, I never knew of love--

To give, or to receive;

I never heard of God above,

Knew nothing to believe.

And even when I died, so young,

I had no funeral;

No one to weep, no saddend song--

I had no burial.

You see, I was aborted--

Torn from my mothers womb;

She really had no time for me,

A bucket was my tomb.

And now I think what might have been'

If I'd a chance to live;

A chance to try, --to sink or swim,

And of myself to give.

So, won't you set a day aside--

A birthday once a year;

A day for me, who so young died,

Unloved, unwanted here.

********

Copyright 1975 Richard Kenny,

All rights reserved

[BigStick]

I interviewed with the AFOSI commander at Osan, an AF 0-6...who was a West Point grad that had reclassed to the AF! Ultimately, my chain of command, "convinced," me I didn't want to attempt an interservice transfer...

Well, yes... LOL Changing your branch of service can be a "fun-packed dilemma" in a variety of ways. They don't especially like you switching your shirt.

...I've since found my calling in the private sector.

I see that, down in Cajun country no less! How's the boudin these days? Are you a patron of Comeaux's? That's some mighty fine eatin' stuff they put together.