Born in the darkest of alleyways,

she was laid in a box, in rags,

the body which expelled her

too cavernous in its own need

to hear her starving heart

break. Abandonment gets

in your DNA, they say –

cripples the soul, twists

the bloom  – but deep calls

to deep, innocent

instinct spawned in

unholy soil.  She raises

her head to the sun,

ingesting Light.