Cherish

Cherish

He has heartaches older than her,
mistakes with a longer history.
Valuing only the apparent, the known,
she craves sunshine, shoes, sad songs,
liberty ~ a father's approval, perhaps.
Tight in her skin, bones milky,
blood thin, sweet, quick,
she dances, hugs herself for him,
while, weary, he administers a drink;
curator's eye logging the bloom of skirt,
scholarly on young woman flesh,
its zoological eloquence, its pledge
of nothingness, of time laid to rest,
of electric quietus. A selfish blessing
for which he would cry, hold this babe
against his chest, love entirely until she
or her medicine fails, unable to steady
the tail-spin of decline, leaving him needy
future poor, found out by sadness and
a dream.