Somebody else’s child blinks and coos for the camera.
Somebody else’s child has just turned six.
Somebody else’s child’s head nestles in the crook of her mother’s neck.
Somebody else’s child goes by Nate, short for Nathan, short for Nathaniel.
Somebody else’s child’s sister wants to be the baby’s favorite relative.
Somebody else’s child has a twin brother, still in the womb.
Somebody else’s child is two months old.
Somebody else’s child came partly from malformed sperm.
Somebody else’s child is autistic and rewarded with orange sections.
Somebody else’s child watches Mommy play rugby.
Somebody else’s child bears an unfortunate nickname.
Somebody else’s child keeps her parents together.
Somebody else’s child costs a lot of money.
Somebody else’s child made somebody else’s grandchild.
Somebody else’s child dressed up like a spider for Halloween, a very scary
     spider with realistic black extra legs.
Somebody else’s child grows awkward around strangers.
Somebody else’s child came from China.
Somebody else’s child chatters in Turkish and English.
Somebody else’s child wants to be a pterodactyl in corduroys.
Somebody else’s child dances to pop songs about never-ending love.
Somebody else’s child keeps his parents awake playing with a toy
     dump-truck that makes battery-operated rumbling sounds shaking the
     floorboards throughout the house in the middle of the night.
Somebody else’s child cried for two hours “because I want to wallow in
     self-pity.”
Somebody else’s child is sturdy but shy.
Somebody else’s child belongs to the Calvinist Cadet Corps, unlike
     somebody else himself, who was kicked out for threatening a bully with a
     jackknife.
Somebody else’s child cut down the tire swing in the backyard.
Somebody else’s child garnishes his mud pies with smooth pebbles.
Somebody else’s child leaves mustardy, custardy poo in her diapers.
Somebody else’s child uses the big-boy potty only for tinkles.
Somebody else’s child took far too many candy-colored Flintstone vitamins;
     my mother had to lend her friend syrup of ipecac.
Somebody else’s child lives with her grandparents.
Somebody else’s child hit like a thunderbolt, breaking the china brought
      over from the Old Country.
Somebody else’s child freaked out another person’s Chihuahua.
Somebody else’s child trains to be a large-animal veterinarian in the South.
Somebody else’s child plans to marry a puppy.
Somebody else’s child brings sunshine and joy, according to the bright
     green letters on the birthday card.
Somebody else’s child hates broccoli but loves spinach.
Somebody else’s child sows meaning in her father’s furrowed brow.
Somebody else’s child works with the homeless.
Somebody else’s child lived in a dumpster, beyond the reach of my arms,
     my caring, empty arms.
Somebody else’s child is somebody else’s child.