Prayer before birth

I am not yet born; O hear me.

Let not the bloodsucking bat or the rat or the stoat

Or the club-footed ghoul come near me.

I am not yet born; console me.

I fear that the human race may with tall walls wall me,

With strong drugs dope me, with wise lies lure me,

On black racks rack me, in blood-baths roll me.

I am not yet born; provide me

With water to dandle me, grass to grow for me,

Trees to talk to me, sky to sing to me, birds and a white light

In the back of my mind to guide me.

I am not yet born; O hear me,

Let not the man who is beast

Or who thinks he is God come near me.

I am not yet born; O fill me

With strength against those who would freeze my humanity...

Against all those those who would...

Blow me like thistledown hither and thither

Or hither and thither like water

Held in the hands would spill me.

Let them not make me a stone

And let them not spill me.

Otherwise kill me.