Remember the time

For the dVerse Poets challenge – Gender Bender. Kelly Letky set us the challenge to write a poem from the point of view of the opposite sex. Very difficult, I just found :)

REMEMBER THE TIME

There is grass growing

on your grave, little one.

Remember the time

when you had walked

on the grass and found

a wriggling worm. You

had run to me afraid and

I had lifted you in the air

and you had declared

you could touch the stars.

I don’t notice the stars anymore.

The tree beside your grave

is shedding leaves, little one.

Remember the times

when you had lain on

my chest, quiet and gently

breathing, and said it felt

like a tree. My arms

the branches. I suppose

you meant strong

and stable and rooted.

You had never seen an uprooted tree.

There are daisies

on your headstone, little one.

Remember the time

your mother and you

had made daisy chains

in the meadow not noticing

the birds that had snacked

on our picnic lunch.

How the two of you had

giggled until my belly

was full of your laughter.

She has not smiled in a long time. 

~~~

In my family, my father was the gentle one, pouring his gentle affection on me unconditionally. Of course, the scenario described above didn’t happen in my case, but I can imagine my father would have been devastated, I being the only daughter and the apple of his eye.