Song of the Adopted Daughter

My two daddies were as different
as night and day--
one plebe, the other patrician
one with dancing blue eyes
the other steady brown
one fought to live, one lived to fight
one now dead, one lives still

the sea, oh soft sea
     wash over me
the sky, soft sky
     rise above me
the leaves, soft leaves
     fall around me
your eyes, your soft eyes
     settle upon me
render me, render me
     your soft touch

In this they shared:                                           
each with a unwilling wife
each sharing the same daughter
one fought for me, one fought with me
one mother found babbling
a year beyond my loss
the other, reluctant with envy
all the years of my presence

the sea, the soft sea
      washes over me
the sky, the soft sky
       rises above me
the leaves, the soft leaves
       fall around me
your eyes, your soft eyes
        settle upon me
render me, render me
        your soft touch

Listen, my two daddies:
I am not now yours--
I never was--
Your time on me has run out,
the clock I am runs on

render me, render me
the sea, the sky, the leaves
yes, render me
your soft eyes, your soft touch

A Daughter's Valentine Received at an Odd Moment

Your valentine arrived here in the mail today
saying that you would love me always
and I burst into tears
for knowing that while you
might love me always
i would not be here, HERE, to know it
always:
your love for me would have its limit
too, like water rippling from a stone's throw.

your valentine with its white cupid
adorning the front
arrived here in the mail today
while i was trying to reconcile
dying with living
and having a hard time of it.

the white, naked cupid adorned
my windowsill for weeks.
Every short moment I looked at it
I thought how you would love me always:
I know you meant it, but,
life is such a contradiction.


Passing the Torch

She swims, I'm told, every day,
her fetus cushioned in its own sea.
Her body, taut and agile,
like the eternal mermaid.

She beguiles with startling blue eyes
which drill deeply down,
down into the water of your being.

She gives birth--quickly,
almost easily--to a new one of her:
a little mermaid ready
to learn the siren's call
from the flesh of a master.