A Child Forgotten

We only wanted the best for you.
Truly, but time was too little and
Spaces too big, and the driving too fast.

And where is your father?
Where is everyone?
Each is alone in a tin box.

I had a nightmare that I was boiling,
Boiling in the sun.

The pool was empty,
And the trees were bare.

I work in a windowless box,
Learn in a flat warehouse.
Can you see the birds sing, from your classroom?
Can you hear the leaves, as they fall in hot August?

Why do we live with so much space between us?
Its impossible to navigate this nameless space.

Can we go back to the womb together,
Mother and daughter, like twins
Arms around each other?

Before you were born, when I was still a child
I knew what mattered then.
Glimpses remain deep in my brain.

Why don’t we embrace,
Embrace like the days before you were born?

It takes a strong muscle to keep us together,
The muscle of the forearm or the womb,
Or the tongue.

And your name remains on my tongue,
But my arms and womb are empty.