Baby Ensign
Last June when I wasn’t there
Leah had a party with a piñata,
A periwinkle party dress and anklets with eyelets.
I see it in the background of the polaroid
She snuck in with the weekly letter,
A sticky, peanut-butter fingerprint next to her face:
Wet hair braided back so tight her eyes look watery,
So excited it looks like her smile might pop her cheeks.
“It was a big hit, “ her mother had written at the time.
Now, printed in lovely, hard-won block letters on a
Note attached to the back I read, “This year I’m getting a
Moon bounce my birthday is in two months what will you bring me?”
Diesel smell and pearl earrings. fair winds and following seas.
i know the wet hair watery-eye look well.
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