LETTERS TO DAUGHTERS FAR AWAY

It’s early morning and I can’t sleep

        because I miss you

                    your presence,

                    laughter,

                    personalities.

Time coasts on.

The wind outside moans free

        and I’m trying to sing with it.

                    My lament is from the soul, sorrowful,

                    because I am disconnected

                    from your lifting spirits.

The song vanishes into the night.

Emptiness invades and engulfs me.

        The quietness creeps in closer

                    and closer.

                    I’m touching feelings

                    That were nonexistent yesterday.

That discovery stirs an inner vortex.

I have to write this down,

        give these feelings care and thought.

                    See, I’ve discarded

                    my legendary illegibility.

                    You deserve neat printing on two pages

On paper torn from your mother’s spiral notebook.

A moment ago, I painted nostalgia

        onto watery eyes. Your formative impression years

                    were boldly stroked from memory images.

                    My three babies became children

                    and now beautiful, energetic women.

You have arrived.

Remember those wonder years?

        How each of us discovered awe,

                    each of us in our own ways.

                    Thank God I can

                    relive those times

On nights like these.

Do you remember when

        our transition time set in?

                    We had fewer and fewer moments

                    in true, revealing light.

                    Life presented different fashions

For our new, emerging passions.

Oh, we had chances,

        Plenty came our way

                    for connection and clasping.

                    But other priorities kept grasping

                    as your maturity came into play.

Oh well, be that as it may.

And now,

        I live each new day

                    in a different spirit.

                    Rest assured, don’t worry.

                    I’m building new ways to relate

To each of you.

There, I’ve spilled it out.

        Now, you know this part of me.

                    Take this as a confession.

                    it lifts a depression

                    that spans the distance between us,

Making the path between us a new beginning.