blue covered-wagon

i read a book (one,
two, three years ago)
about a girl who found a blue
covered-wagon with a
tattered tarp. on the inside,
there was a new mother,
and she was dying. the mother
told this girl to take
her baby and find it a home.
so she did. and      
when she got home,
her mother’s baby had died.
so, they took the dead baby
and buried it. and put the new baby
in its crib.
without telling the mother.
and that was that.

maybe that happened to me.

maybe at the hospital, some poor,
lonely, single, teen mother gave birth
to a reject and then
died,
and this married, responsible,
25-year-old mother had a baby
who died. so,
the hospital staff just said,
“fuck it,” and swapped the fingerprints.
without telling my mother.
and that was that.