Sonnet

New Year 2013.

Daughter

Dull misery. She is gone.

The smiling eyes,

The impish smirk, the child so full of wit.

That bairn, bereft of years but not unwise,

Nor short of poetry, or words to fit,

Brimming with music, overspilling laughs,

The one whose japes we many times rehearsed,

Who jumped in with both feet, never by halves,

Whose joy and energy like sunshine burst.

And she is fled. Instead, a stick-thin soul

Came home for Christmas. Never smiling now.

Withdrawn. A stranger. Always in control.

Goodbye my wild quicksilver lovely. Ciao.

Often I thought a changeling had been left,

But dreamt that we would find her.

Gone.

Bereft.

9th January 2013