The Written Man

A photograph holds the key to my heart that has been lost for good. 

I look into the mirror and see a man's face that is so pure, so proud...so much like my own.

Rings of gold embrace my eyes, but they hold dark shadows of the past.

Silver-laced teardrops tremble down my cheeks and waltz across my lap.

My face is a imitation of the man I lost so many years ago, when cancer lodged it's attack...

But my fading, five year-old memories laced in bronze will hold that brave man in the depths of my soul for all of my existence.

When I kissed him goodbye for the final time and got on my very first school bus, how would I have known that it would be the last time?

His very last wish was to see me walk away and begin a new life...

Life-the shreds of mine remained while bone cancer snatched his away. 

When I returned home, I needed loved ones to hold the needle and thread to stitch the broken parts of me together again.

My solace would be not to sew myself up; instead, i let my broken remains bleed out into as the ink of my soul.

My pen taps the paper in a delicate tango; as scribbles and scratches become the burning truth that my tongue is resistant to release.

Blurred memories of a faceless man scrawl themselves across the parchment and sing out with a brand-new voice.

Imagination is the missing puzzle piece to the hole that cancer left in my heart; it allows me to bring to mind the man that taught me everything in the five short years we shared.

For now, I'm aware that when I soon graduate, you will not be cheering me on from the crowd.

You will not send me off to college, or walk me down the aisle to give me away to the (second best) man in my life.

Yet, I know with every particle of my being that you will never look down upon me from your place in Heaven;

Rather, you will be walking besides me-ready to grasp my hand when I fall down again.

And when I can put my brittle dreams to work in the shape of words, I will bring life to the man that is my daddy;

For someday, fondness won't be enough, and i'll dance with you again...

But for now, rest in peace, dear angel...

Love, your daughter and her pen.