Remember when I was two?
You held my hands as I walked
Down the immense marble steps
You hurt your back
Navigating my childish antics
Yet you held on
How simple life was then
Black and white
Polka dots and stripes

Remember when I was five?
You buttoned up my white uniform
Sent me out the door
And stood on the steps
Finally let me go

Remember when I was eight?
You watched with pride
As I performed for the first time
On that grand piano
The music box you brought
Into my lonely world
The one I never gave up

Remember when I was ten?
The day I left behind
All I ever knew
But you were there
And you held my hands
Shielded the stones
While I stepped into a new world

Remember this February?
When you left again
One of so many other times
And I thought I’d grown used to it
Watching your figure
Disappear into the crowd
But I cried that day,
And my friends wondered why
Because 2/14 meant something else

Sometimes late at night
I’d turn on the computer and watch
You peer through the screen
See the sacrifice in your eyes
Feel the ache in my heart
I’d put my hands on your image
Searching, grasping for material
Cursing the cruel reality
The oceans between us

You have wrinkles now
And gray streaks in your hair
The little things I’d never noticed before
The bigger things you don’t tell me
You were in the hospital
You had a severe allergic reaction
You might have Parkinson’s
I’d worry day and night
But to no avail
Pulling my hair, drying the silent tears
For not being there

I’d get angry
I’d cry, yell, and push you away
Because I’m scared, lost, and alone
Still that little girl you led
Step by step down the marble stairwell
And I want you here
Need you to hold my hands again
To never let me go

Remember that moody teenager?
She needs you
She misses you
She loves you