V G Lee
My heart belongs to Daddy
Here come the scorched breasts narrowly
divided by a deep abrupt ravine -
she who once paraded beside a swimming pool
now plies an awkward stroke; dimpled chin
tilted, three inches towards the sun.
She’s nervous around children over six,
particularly boys with arrow-heads
for shoulder-blades who splash and spit.
Oh so different last year - with Daddy.
Forceful and constant as the next big wave;
freshening her drink, feeding her cashews
as if she was a pretty pet capuchin.
She won’t go in the sea without him,
which means she won’t go in the sea again.
Where your daddy gone, little girl?
Why daddy dead now, taking an imaginary
candy lolly from her mouth, flown away
to heaven - preparing a home for us both.
Back-bone aching from holding her chin so high,
she squats down in the shallow end, her legs
dwarfed by water, not in love at all with
those boys who maul, desperate for Daddy’s
grizzled chest, the insouciant way he rode a sun-bed.
Dive bombers - they want this old girl out.
Time to pretend she left the pool of her own
accord, went indoors because her skin
can take only so much sun, ordered tea for one
with its accompanying dessicated Viennese
Whirl - no fun drinking now Daddy’s gone.
Yes, my heart belongs to Daddy. she keeps
the humming loud, as she passes by the mums
and dads and soft-skinned children, the glorious
teenagers and lone women not so like herself.
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Page(s) 67-68
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