# Sullied

By [One Female Experience](https://paragraph.com/@one-female-experience) · 2022-07-14

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>     I don't understand.
>     Which of these
>     Do you believe?
>     
>     That your life is perfect
>     And contains no suffering?
>     Or that you've imbibed superpowers
>     That can shield your genes
>     And your future offspring
>     From harm, from lies, from pain?
>     
>     Either you're high on hubris
>     Or you're sorely misinformed
>     If you think the world will change
>     In 20 years
>     Or that you've become omnipotent
>     In 30.
>     
>     So pray, enlighten me.
>     How do you make the choice
>     To bring forth this sanctified
>     Fruit of your loins
>     Into a cold hard world -
>     Knowing it will suffer,
>     It will blame you for life,
>     It will want to check out
>     But will be trapped
>     By the mad senseless love
>     Of a child for its parent?
>     
>     Is it to pass on the baton
>     Of the shame you face each day,
>     The burden of not being able
>     To erase the pain
>     Of your parents' failure?
>     
>     Or is it to make whole
>     By taking from a pure gullible source
>     That hole in your emotional pocket
>     From love spurned or rationed low?
>     
>     Is this what we must all do?
>     Pass on the pain
>     And place the weight
>     Of inherited great expectations
>     Onto the next generation?
>     
>     And call it love, call it hope,
>     Call it parental faith,
>     Call it optimism
>     Or maybe a renewed lease
>     On the dreams we now know
>     Will never materialize?
>     
>     Well, take my name
>     Off that list.
>     I know when my game is up
>     And I know it's not a relay race.
>     It may be a marathon
>     That I'm quitting halfway,
>     
>     But atleast it's my marathon
>     And when I plead mercy,
>     Only I feel the pain
>     Of a world that goes on grinding,
>     Until I'm only dust.
>     
>     I don't grab little hands
>     And force them to twist with me,
>     Bend them out of shape
>     Long before they realize -
>     They're at the start
>     Of their own marathon
>     They don't even know
>     They're too winded to run.
>     
>     You may think I'm dumb
>     And maybe you'll never realize
>     That it's not me,
>     It's you - who
>     Through your ignorance
>     Or willful cruelty
>     Bring into life
>     Something pure,
>     Only to be sullied.
>

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*Originally published on [One Female Experience](https://paragraph.com/@one-female-experience/sullied)*