The Wish
It was on this day forty years ago that my father,
dressed so beautifully in his Army dress-blues,
walked me down the aisle toward the love of my life
With a penny in my shoe for good luck
We passed red-velvet pews filled with family and friends
I could see the brilliant smile on his face clear to the back of the chapel
As we walked slowly,
my father leaned to me, whispered, "Goodbye, Kel.
I love you. Have a good life."
It was a day I remember nearly every single moment
I was twenty-three years old
So was he
I have planned three quarters of my life
A million minutes around what I wanted
What was intended to be
What began in a chapel that day
What was him and me
It will now forever be the anniversary of the death of a thing
Not just "a thing", but "the thing", "my thing", "our thing"
Really, the death of so many things
Most of all, for me, the death of dreams never to be
I keep thinking of the wish my father gave to me that day
I can still hear the whisper of his voice
It was a wish that came true in so many amazing ways
A good life
And as much as I want to hate
I know
It is better to have been loved once,
than to have never been loved at all
He gave me that
In a million moments
That started on that day
Forty years ago
I also know
I gave him that
A million moments
of love
A million memories
No one can take any of that away