Better Days Behind
You remember the who and the what
but not so much the why of that day
you left behind your tiresome concerns
for a few forever hours in the park.
Green were the words bandied about
and green too the sentences of silences
you shared with your daughter on the grass
as the sun, clouds and hawk
coalesced overhead, gracing the world.
Later by the lake, feeding the geese
pretend-bread and laughing at their easeful
acceptance of this fiction, as if
imaginary crumbs eclipsed real ones
in taste and texture and truth.
Your daughter’s pretense of generosity
honored and reciprocated by the gosling
who kept licking her ticklish palm.
Something in her fulsome face told you
this might be the last day of its kind
and so you held her hand all the way home,
which was difficult on bicycles,
but operable all the same.
***
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Photo by Eric Domond/Flickr
I easily felt the magic of this as a father of a daughter.
Nce sentiment, than you for sharing. BTW, I have an adult daughter who is celebrating her 10 wedding anniversary. Believe me when I tell you that you have plenty of great days in front of you. I cried when she first went to school. I cried when she graduated grade school, I cried when she graduated high school and I totally fell apart when she got married. I cried when she gave birth to her first born, second born and will cry with baby #3. Tender moments will continue through te years. She will always be your luttle girl. Believe… Read more »