by Chris Faunce

You were a perfect mistake,
   a joy to this world
despite being despised for
   your criminal arrival—
sentenced to death and
   ripped from a future
that would’ve been good
   despite being inconvenient.

You would’ve lived a common life—
   facing all the troubles
you feared and growing up
   and growing old—
but you would’ve arrived on the
   other side a stronger
martyr from the hurt you
   endured, thankful for
the pain because the scars
   told the tale of
a time you survived.

Chris Faunce studied Civil Engineering at Drexel University. He won the Creative Writing Contest for Poetry at Drexel in 2019. He is from Pennsylvania.