We were never meant to be.
The poetry I wrote,
**You didn't read.

A young girl of only nine years,
stands in the doorway as her mother disappears.
As she zooms down the road,
the girl wonders why.
Her sister explains,
as she begins to cry.

Her father is gone,
never to return.
The tears stream down her face,
and her eyes start to burn.

He had left them for good,
God took him back home.
Her best friend had vanished,
she was left all alone.

Her father is dead,
she will see him once more.
He will lay in his casket,
and be lowered into the floor.

I never got to meet my father...
He died when I was nine months old,
But his presence, I always felt
While I was growing up,
Even up to this day...

He would often visit me in my dreams,
Told me not to worry or despair,
Took my hand,
Told me I could go with him..
Which I almost did...

A few times, in high school
I felt a light push on my back
When my Home Economics teacher
Almost caught me nodding...I was
Too bored, to focus on her sewing lessons...

I was always saved from falling
Each time I climbed the guava tree...
I feel some kind of force stopping me,
Standing ahead of me,
Whenever I cross the street, even now...

My late aunt said she found me
Looking up and giggling
When at three or five years old,
I played by myself beside
My father's tall and sturdy book case...

I see his face when I go through
His dwindling collection of
Edgar Allan Poe books, including his
Law books, and a few western pocketbooks left,
All, with mottled pages now...

The matrimonial bed he shared
With my late mother is still in use...
His portrait is hung on our wall...
Today, the fifteenth of June, his birthday,
I look through his eyes, and-----

In silence, I greet him,
"Happy birthday, papa,
Happy Father's Day, as well."
In my mind, my father lives,
And my own stories of him therein dwells...

Sally

Copyright 2014
Rosalia Rosario A. Bayan

i wanna be that person
you call at 3am
because you can't sleep.
i wanna be that person
that's always happy
because of you
i wanna be that person
that you come to
no matter what
i wanna be the person
you last think about
when you go to sleep
i wanna be that person
i wanna be your everything

let me
be lost
in those
infinite eyes
of
yours.

You fill my chest

with

little
hiccups
of
happiness.

I hope you know that.