Fathers and Daughters
You lean over wood
as if dying –
but my arm supports
you – my love
connects – arm to arm
I feel it under my
skin – it flows through
my blood – and this
power I have I share
with you.
Your eye’s talk for you,
and I understand where
you have been – where
you still want to be –
but as you lean on
wood – watch as your
mouth sucks in air – those
eye’s feel the edge of
life – they look smaller
as if – you are
disappearing.
You bring tears to my
eyes – yet I turn, hide as
if a child – not wanting a
friend to see my true
feelings – tears because
I see the man who
pushed my swing – who
guided me as I slid down
a slide – who had tears in
his eye’s when I wore
white, and placed a penny
in my shoe.
Your pain I feel it too
and want to lean on wood
for you – for us – for
all the years you – were
my pillar – of my life
and now I search for help
to make you smile – as
a child searches for a
playmate on a deserted
street.
You know – I know your
friends are gone – left you
alone, but you are filled
by their love deep inside
your heart –
love – never changes,
it only grows deeper,
thicker, stronger, as roots
of a tree – as roots spread
beneath the ground – our
ground – our life – as I grab
your arm – take a few more
steps and search for the
pillar you need –
to stay alive – today.
Recently I was visiting my father and I felt the urge to write about how he must have felt, since we always share our feelings, it was looking at him through his own mind. Not that it changed feelings we both share. Always, Nancy