Dear Daughter

Remember when you laughed for the first time?
I made a silly face and tickled your belly.
You may not remember it,
You may not even know who I am.
The flowers that I laid upon your bed were as sweet as you are.

I laughed a quiet chuckle gazing at your eyes,
Noticing and admiring the brown and green eyes I gave you,
And I smiled a deep smile.
Your cooing and laughter filled my spirit with something other than death.

'The Epic of Le Enfante' is what I inscribed upon my mind.
Not knowing that I would be alive for both the beginning,
And the end.

I've seen monsters,
I've seen the death in the eyes of every man.
Yet yours I could not imagine,
My soul it itself I would give for you,
Breath itself I would breathe back into your body.
My heart weeps,
Just as an ember that has stood through the flames,
Even outlasting the blaze,
Only to be left alone in the ashes and smoldering away to nothing.

How could an evil exist such as this,
The anger that resides in thy bones itself could quench the sea.
War drums themselves I would beat,
And a war waged.

I will miss your smile,
For no war will claim you back,
And no words.
I am a man with nothing left to him but sadness.