MY DROWNING DAUGHTER
for Greta
What do I say to the daughter
I’m leaving underwater?
“Forgive me,
For failing to stop the flood?”
I could tell her how
numbers were valued over words
and poetry lost
ears to mouths
mixing metaphors with facts
for larger figures
Personal accounts
Won’t help my drowning daughter
I can teach her to tell time
according to mayflies
Hold her up
hands out of water
until the last beaded breath
has abandoned body
to be inhaled by trees