@Semaj 18 September 2021

No longer

Does she know? That I'm slipping away, Like rubbery ducks in a bath, A blurry memory in the past, Sometimes I catch her Staring, At me, Perhaps wondering, When I grew old enough to lie, Old enough to hide behind smiles, Airy laughs, When I learned to cover weakness, With jokes and self jabs, To keep her from worrying, To conceal my worrying, She must wonder, How I face the world with such a tiny body, Why I haven't drowned, Why my head still floats, She must wonder, If I have reached the point, Where life shifts from a ride to a chase, Where problems adorn me like a choke necklace, I see it in her eyes that she knows that, When I laugh, I giggle and I speak another lie No longer will her little girl ask, "When I grow older, what will I be?" ©miriel_oye