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. |