arrived in March —
a Tuesday’s child and
you said it was meant to be
as you recited the lines of a poem
that is still as distant a memory
as Jr. High French class and
ninth grade locker assignments, which were both
meant to be, too, and as we hung the pictures you drew
of castles and dragons on the metal door
I never imagined that fourteen years later
I would cry the entire way from Elizabeth to Oakland
as I drove to see your daughter for the first time.
Maybe I should’ve stopped
bought a bouquet of flowers and a card
but I seriously doubted Hallmark had anything about
having to keep my gun permit current for when she starts dating —
and flowers, while beautiful at this moment, don’t last.
Years from now you won’t be able to pull them out of your drawer
like I do with the sun catcher you made me
for graduation.
-- Erika Similo
Erika Similo lives in Elizabeth, Pa., and is a co-coordinator of the Pleasant Hills Writers’ Group. Her poetry and prose has been published in the Pleasant Hills Writers’ Group Literary Journal, Metamorphosis — A Literary Journey. Many writers featured in Chapter & Verse are guests of Prosody, produced by Jan Beatty and Ellen Wadey. Prosody airs every Tuesday at 7 p.m. on independent radio, WYEP 91.3 FM.