Calculated Counsel for Camille

It all bogs down to how we come to terms

With suns rising in our midst, daughter Camz.



We go to so many places familiar and certain,

The contour of our imaginings constrained

By a million mornings coming close to the game,

We victors and vanquished but not knowing

The difference, the daring always a done deal.



You tell me of how you did it your way,

In your own sweet and challenging day,

With the lessons of courage and care

Thrown in between that falling in line

To enrol in truth and name its bogus kind.



As we go on and on, we see more and more

Of dusks not coming at the appointed time,

Of dawns failing to show up in moody mornings

At those times we need affirmings

Like my absences in thousands of years

At the time of your quiet questionings.



But forgive me, dear daughter. Remember

As always our common dream: to live fairly

And well, to live in the just faith forever.

Tell that to your kid sister and tell her,

Oh, please tell her to include me in her prayers

Even as she climbs mountains and swims rivers

In the ricocheting reality of her child's storyteller.





Aurelio S. Agcaoili

Redondo Beach, California

Sunday, Nov. 7, 2004

No comments: