The Gift
by
Amethyst

searching for flowers
lost in tangled weeds
I found a summer night
by a lake

a family outing
I hadn't known you
very long

filling in years
sipping sorrow
like wine
you said
"I never got to do this
when you were little."

and you drew me
across your lap
and cradled me,
my head against
your chest
like the baby girl
you never got to hold

careening down
the confusion of years
I became
that child again
fell and settled
back into that pain
into arms that should have
always belonged to me

sweet and aching
fleeting and sad
your haunted gift

like a vision
of lost roses

like the dream
of another life
where my daddy
took me home