THE DAUGHTERS

You know the saying --
how all fathers love
their only daughters

well I can just see Uncle Irv
saying stand with Linda,
someday you'll be
just like her

five feet high
and five feet wide
(as we later joked)

and even for the picture
I refused to take
my coat and hat off
so that I almost look
as fat as she is

knowing I don't belong there
I let her keep those hands
clutching my shoulders

where at seventeen
she must have dreamed
of all the little girls
she'd have, and even at four
I knew better.

---

Copyright © 1997 by Rochelle Ratner.

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