Winter

Oh daddy with the funny blue black hair
Oh father with the breathless, heart-wrenching stare

Oh papa I’ve seen you cry and want to run away
And that’s okay
Mistreated, but I love you anyway

Daddy,
Won’t you love my mother?
With her, be the father?
Oh dad
Won’t you look at her face and see me even in the pain?
Oh daddy,
Won’t you love my mother?
Stroke and smell her hair?
It’s just a mess in the natural order of things and I feel it in my blood
I feel it in my pulsing veins
It’s in me, everywhere

Oh daddy,
You don’t have to stand by her

You don’t have to come home to her
You don’t have to uphold the vows

But father,
Won’t you love my mother?
Oh ma,
Oh pa…

Won’t you love me? -December 13, 2007