Daughter

When I’m talking to her, really talking to her…

I’m talking to myself. My younger-self,

and trying to say the things I’d want to have said to me, if I were her.

I’m trying to be the parent I needed. So I try to be the parent that she needs,

to improve myself to help her improve.

This is love. Unconditional. Pure.

Soiled only by the demons that have crept on my back,

I keep pushing them back;

The ghosts and voices of the dead and the damned, the righteous and the grand…

All take a stand.

She is not me. She is everything I am and could be,

and so much more.

I worry for what lies ahead on the other side of Future's door.

It’s not a pretty world, I say. As I try to explain to her,

Well maybe it is, it can be.

I’m not without fault. I’ve made my mistakes along the way,

Perhaps that’s why I’m more forgiving of hers,

I’d have needed more forgiveness when I look at my younger-self,

so I will give it now for her.

And in turn, I see myself through her eyes,

And hear myself through her words.

She mirrors to me, what I can work on within,

She challenges me,

my friend and my kin.