Dear Daughter

You are a charm,

How can one not love you? 

I remember holding you, 

When you were Born,

Tiny bundle of joy,

You were crying and so was I,

Those were tears of joy. 

I remember your first words 

And your first step,

I remember when your first tooth fell,

And you complained that,

Air was entering and filled your mouth. 

I remember singing you Lullabies,

I remember reading you fairy tales,

And chasing away the monster, 

under your bed,

Each time before you went to sleep.

I remember when your laughter filled the house, 

I remember the angry noises you made,

When I rub my beard against your cheeks.

I remember you dancing to tunes,

My generation won’t really call music

I remember when grandpa said,

“Like father like daughter”

After you punched the bully,

Right on his nose.

BAM!

I remember when you told me,

About your first crush.

I remember when I had to console you,

After your first heartbreak.  

There! There!

I remember your graduation ceremony,

And the valedictory speech,

You practiced with me a hundred times,

With a hundred different errors each time,

But still on stage, you were perfect.

I believed you every time you told me,

“I am going to make you proud”,

From breaking bubble wraps,

You have grown big enough,

To break glass ceilings

When I look back, 

I see a small girl wanting great things in life,

And somehow she managed to achieve it all. 

You are the envy of every girl in town,

And the dream of every boy in the world

Dear Daughter,

This would have been your life,

You would have existed for real,

If I had chosen, not to embrace,

The rope hanging from the ceiling.