Found Names

By | 1 February 2014

The police called her ‘Precious’,
acid burn on her skin,
long drop toilet, Humansdorp.

A nurse named her ‘Vicky Unknown Monday’,
rubbish dump, Lotus River,
March 2010.

And ‘Moses’, on the banks of the vlei,
‘Valiant’, who was covered in sores.
Never ‘Baby X’, never ‘Baby Y’.

For those who find infants
know they must be named
to properly be saved,

to survive, to be recalled.
We want to remember
Agatha, August, Adamastor

when we tell the stories of
cold, cords, maggots, rags,
the foundlings without cauls.

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