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 crazy 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

Peace Dale
October 1981
Revised July 2003
Sugar Hill, NH

 

~Return To "Being in a Family"