Dear little girl
With your glasses and braces
Thick mahogany hair,
And maturity in loose traces,
The world was thrust upon slim shoulders
Rivers of darkness flowed into your heart,
A treasure so vast your frame couldn’t hold her.

Monsters gnawed at the bones of your faith
For so long you dared not ask the mirror
If it should speak of a corpse or a wraith
You’d give anything to be anywhere but there
And wrote poems of mental wear and tear
But if I can halt your spry pencil, dear,
I’d like to sing sweet music to your ears.

Dear little girl,
You’ll make friends with twenty-five
There will burst orange rays of light
Under which you’ll learn to thrive

Gently, sweet child,
For healing can be a steep journey
But through trust, love, and honesty,
You’ll find you needn’t always hurry.

I’ll meet you at the corner
Of Reflection and Introspection
From there we’ll reach Tranquility Square
And we’ll reconnect with your dreams,
The ones you tossed to any stale air

I promise to live in your honor;
I will laugh, I’ll sing, I’ll dance
I’ll hang string lights in my room
For the child who was denied the chance
I will build our sacred ShangriLa—
A place of hope and weightless bliss
A place where souls are frivolous

I promise to be foolish, even plain dumb,
Slide down banisters, hang from the rafters
To youthful whimsy I’ll forever succumb
I'll see monkey bars in treetops
And elephants in the clouds
Although some may scowl,
Through me, you'll live out loud

Gently, sweet child
Live and breathe within me
And I'll guide you past milestones
You never thought you'd see
Gently, sweet child--
We've made it here already
Although abstract and uncertain,
Life will show us that we're free. 💕


© Jaz Rogers