When I was little, my dad wrote me a little lullaby. He never finished the words for the middle section and just had some place holder-lyrics. When he died last month, I wrote a responding lullaby to him. My relationship was complicated with him. We loved each other tremendously but things got in the way and there was estrangement. The last time I saw him or spoke with him was 8 years before he died. The lyrics don’t flow like normal poetry because I used sayings and aphorisms of his that he repeated throughout my childhood and I put in some of the final texts he sent to me-the last things he ever communicated to me
Time that I
Was a star in your eye
I was your pride and joy
I can still feel your
Strength wrapped around me
You’re what I’m waiting for
All alone; would a little
Love help?
Try to mend the breech
But couldn’t save you in the end
Tell me again that love has no end
Further up and further in
Your broken heart will beat now as my own
Always life is too short. Always …
It broke your heart
The night that you told me
Watched you fade out the door
One last goodbye
This final lullaby
What are we waiting for
Missed you long before you were gone
Take my hand; let’s run
It’s you and me daddy
Reaching out
To hold the emptiness you left behind
And in the end
Can’t say what it’s all for
To see, to feel, to pretend
Tidelines on the strand
Moonlight after the day
Promise you’ll always feel this way