How it Was

What a nuisance, tagging alongside me
that cootie toting, giggling girly-girl.
She’s always there, keeping two steps behind
with a skip, a dance, and fifty stupid twirls.

My friends tease and taunt; they laugh
when they see the blond bob of her hair
tracing my steps to the baseball game,
where she’ll watch with that solemn stare.

Ma thinks she’s the sweetest thing,
Pop lets her come along on our fishing trips.
But she’s always here just for me, though my sister
thinks she’s there to play with her pretty hair clips.

Her smile is bright as the noontime sun
and she turns that sun too often in my direction.
No matter how often I grumble, and tell her to scram,
she stays to shine my world with angelic perfection.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That’s how it was, those five years past:
me dodging her pretty, seeking eyes.
But now I hold her heart and she mine,
and it is, for me, the greatest surprise.

She still follows me to my ballgames,
and in the bleachers beside Ma and Pop she sits.
They scream and cheer, her voice rising above with:
“I love you!” as the ball soars into a space orbit.

And then we walk to a late night show
our heads pressed close, our hands clasped tight.
Beneath the guise of watching a love story
we steal kisses in the shadows and flickering light.

Our lives entwine at school and home;
we weave a dance with touches and gazes.
Each day we kiss and whisper words
of deep love and passion that blazes.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That’s how it was, those ten years past:
a randy teenaged boy chasing after such a pretty girl.
But now she holds my heart, my love, my diamond ring;
and within her womb, a life just beginning to unfurl.

She’s blooming like a rose, so sweet, so full
and beneath her loving, mother’s heart
the faint, quick double time beat,
sounds our daughter’s young, baby heart.

And when the time comes, the contraction clenches,
and the sharp pain of impending motherhood begins.
We race to the hospital and tuck her into bed,
and the doctor comes with a big, happy grin.

As the time lengthens, the grin begins to fade,
the contractions become erratic, the pain increases.
My lovely wife, her face pale and frightened,
I cry for her and our child, while she begs for release.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

That’s how it was, those two years past:
such happiness and wonder, a much wanted child.
She still holds my heart, my love, my diamond ring,
beneath a pretty stone, where the earth is piled.

My grief shadows me wherever I go.
Phantom kisses and touches wrench me in two
as I remember our whispers and burning passion,
her solemn eyes watching me like shining jewels.

The sting of loss dwindles as time passes,
life continues even when you wish it would not.
I miss her, the girl who captured my soul,
and loneliness will forever make my tears run hot.

And yet I see the innocent angel I remembered of long ago
trotting beside me with a skip, a dance, and fifty pretty twirls.
Her blond hair caught in a clip, her giggles enchanting the air,
she is the sunlight mending me, my lover’s gift, our little girl.