Daughters – A Thread You Follow

A Kiss Goodbye

The strangeness in me recedes and
     is caught
in cobwebbed corners before it
     falls slowly
on the golden hair of 
     my daughters.
How strange they now seem!
I recognize their dance as they
     skip out
the front door, yet I misstep,
     stumbling,
kissing them each goodbye.

With Marie

One day we will dance together
after the sun has set on both our lives.
Any sense of separation will fall away.
The angels of care will prevail
over the demons of despair
and we will step into heaven
holding each other's hand
like I used to do as you learned
to take your first steps along the way.
"What ifs?" will no longer matter.
"Whys?" will not need to be figured out.
The answer to "Where?" will be right
beside each of us, gracefully
and gratefully, smiling at the other.

Fathers and Daughters

Fathers and daughters turn circles holding hands
and paint each other's faces with favorite colors.
The words spoken as the evening moves into night
gently rest upon the air and need not go further
towards demands for the future or place expectations
that flinch in the face of possibilities.  Peace rests
between the generations after having shared
the experience of the weekend together.  Small miracles
have not been overlooked.  All attachments honored.
Those who stumble walk again with the help
of every presence.  No talk of salvation arises
as the fathers write daughters a letter.  Each one
inscribed with the words, "I am the luckiest Daddy
in the world to have you as a daughter."

Notes from Daughters

We should not miss the further complexity
of being a human being by pointing to
one flaw after another and dismissing any
innate goodness in our nature.  One bad apple
just tastes bad and should not be brought
to the banquet table.  Beware of those who tell 
others what to do because of the length 
of their list of rules.  Visit, instead, places of adventure
tucked away in valleys.  Sit behind a roadside
lemonade stand and sell a cup or two for a quarter.
And on days of sickness pull out those notes 
written by daughters in unsure handwriting 
filled with I love yous and You're the best daddy.

The Note

A daughter's note 
begins a journal from long ago
taped to the first page
saying I love you.

Time and seasons
allow such words 
to guide us into mystery
in a meaningful way.

Picture Exchange

A drawn rainbow
shimmers on the page,
orange, green and blue,
under a scribbled rain.

A snowman holds up 
its arms, wearing 
a black hat and purple 
scarf, smiling.

Pictures exchanged
by sisters, taped
to a page long ago,

Let’s Remake the World by Pedaling Faster

…after Gregory Orr

Let’s remake the world by pedaling faster
because the Dairy Queen can’t wait
at the end of our bicycle ride.
And the smiles speed brings
to the faces of my daughters
pulled along behind me
makes the circling madness
of my legs make sense.

Let’s “Go faster, Daddy!
so fast that our hair,
rushing behind us,
can’t catch us
and won’t get stuck
in the ice cream.”

Published: https://www.thewell.world/about/news/2020/04/08/mindful-poetry-virtual-gathering-2