I -- am with her right now
The small girl who lives in my heart's recess
And fills that beating palace with hope --

She sits in a patch of grass, just beyond,
In my mind's open meadow,
Singing to herself and picking blueberries
        she puts in her pocket.
She counts clouds on purple-stained fingers
And giggles at the chickadee's song
                   Phoe-be!      Phoe-be!
Forever six years old --

Sunlight tangles in her hair
As she twirls and fans her sundress,
        plopping to the ground
Her laughter filling an innocent sky --

She is luminous
The love between us:
The deepest kind --