Absentee: For Brandi, Lauren and Noel
By Eric F. Maxie
I
Do lonely little girls in weeping eve
Still yearn for slumbers strong-armed courage to
Break boogey man and closet phantom’s siege
Embrace and Whisper “your daddy loves you?”
Or because tears water such wearied seeds,
To root, who reach through dark and earth and fright
For dreams of love opposed and despite weeds,
They’ll bloom, in pastures of paternal blight.
Or could they grow stoic, erect, unstirred,
Unfettered or undeterred, at the least,
Or do they hope in vain for love deferred,
Or haunted by his absence, find no peace?
I pray they’ll sway and bend but never break
Though can they shake that specter of heartache?
II
He would erect a pedestal
To climb upon,
Of stone and steel;
Gaze deeply
At the
Horizon,
Affixed
The quintessential gesture pointing
There
To capture history’s
And tourist’
Admirable stare.
A monument,
A temple,
Or a pyramid,
Noteworthy
To disguise
Regrets that he has lived;
Time overturned, rewritten and excised
An unfamiliar father
In your eyes
Now
So much like his own-
Ever searching,
Excavating meaning,
Collecting artifacts of
Memories
For proof that love
Existed.
By Eric F. Maxie
I
Do lonely little girls in weeping eve
Still yearn for slumbers strong-armed courage to
Break boogey man and closet phantom’s siege
Embrace and Whisper “your daddy loves you?”
Or because tears water such wearied seeds,
To root, who reach through dark and earth and fright
For dreams of love opposed and despite weeds,
They’ll bloom, in pastures of paternal blight.
Or could they grow stoic, erect, unstirred,
Unfettered or undeterred, at the least,
Or do they hope in vain for love deferred,
Or haunted by his absence, find no peace?
I pray they’ll sway and bend but never break
Though can they shake that specter of heartache?
II
He would erect a pedestal
To climb upon,
Of stone and steel;
Gaze deeply
At the
Horizon,
Affixed
The quintessential gesture pointing
There
To capture history’s
And tourist’
Admirable stare.
A monument,
A temple,
Or a pyramid,
Noteworthy
To disguise
Regrets that he has lived;
Time overturned, rewritten and excised
An unfamiliar father
In your eyes
Now
So much like his own-
Ever searching,
Excavating meaning,
Collecting artifacts of
Memories
For proof that love
Existed.
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