Easy Grace
She walks beside me
Young and lithe, a monument
To my sometimes forgotten youth.
Freshly straightened raven
Dark hair, flowing like coffee
Poured from the chalice of my heart.
A daughter’s easy grace
Bubbling up from a father’s
Instinctively protected wellsprings.
She stands caught in midstride
One foot in childhood and the forward,
Leading foot already a woman.
She cannot know the vast
Sea of love for her that fills my heart
With such gratitude and pain.
These many years have made me deep.
I am carved from within by grief’s
Chisels and gouges.
Yet my depths must be a secret place
Unknown to her youthful
Meandering meadow bound spring.
This fee charged, this toll paid,
This bone deep love, this marrow
Filled connection is my reward.
As we walk on, halo blessed heads
Reveling in the shared pleasure
Of inconsequential chatter,
A tear of gratitude escapes my eye
Unnoticed by her and celebrated only
With a grimace on my weather beaten face.
Scott DuRoff 2/2012
She walks beside me
Young and lithe, a monument
To my sometimes forgotten youth.
Freshly straightened raven
Dark hair, flowing like coffee
Poured from the chalice of my heart.
A daughter’s easy grace
Bubbling up from a father’s
Instinctively protected wellsprings.
She stands caught in midstride
One foot in childhood and the forward,
Leading foot already a woman.
She cannot know the vast
Sea of love for her that fills my heart
With such gratitude and pain.
These many years have made me deep.
I am carved from within by grief’s
Chisels and gouges.
Yet my depths must be a secret place
Unknown to her youthful
Meandering meadow bound spring.
This fee charged, this toll paid,
This bone deep love, this marrow
Filled connection is my reward.
As we walk on, halo blessed heads
Reveling in the shared pleasure
Of inconsequential chatter,
A tear of gratitude escapes my eye
Unnoticed by her and celebrated only
With a grimace on my weather beaten face.
Scott DuRoff 2/2012