WALK!

“Come,” she says, and beckons.

I sit with her, we’re playing

LEGO dollhouse, Bob the Builder.

Barbie, Play-Doh, drawing.

“There, a birdie, lift me?”

“Darling, I can’t, a second,

And I’ll get my chair, we go out if you want?”

“You are big, WALK! You are no baby!

You can walk and you can talk”

“But I AM a baby! You push me outside

Together we ride

and see the birdies?”

She eyes me suspiciously.

And then smiles deliciously.

“You are big baby

But I am mummy and I carry you.

We go see the birdies, yes?”

I nod, lift her chin, caress

Her crown of hair, so fair!

“You carry me.”

She carries me everywhere,

She is in my heart

Even when not physically there.

She will always be a part

Of me. My little ray of light,

Always there, I think of her

During the longest night.

© Darren White