Bridge Of Words (Poetry)

I never thought you’d understand
I never thought it mattered
so we remained at loggerheads
me exiled from your castle

You hardly stopped ignoring me
for that I was most grateful
some interest would have baffled me
and turned me mean and hateful

Despite us being family
odd strangers seemed far closer
and blood ties count for nothing when
a daughter’s pain outgrows her

I searched for fathers everywhere
not one stood up to greet me
but nodded like some Chinaman
inscrutable completely

The figure I might look up to
is grainy — out of focus
and any likeness mirrors find
is some old hocus pocus

For if I thought pure DNA
filled in the gaps in feeling
then I would be a kinder child
and love would find me kneeling

Instead you never gave me cause
to judge our fears related
high walls of silence mounted up
distraction compensated

You’ll never know my fierce regrets
I’ll write a bridge to bind us
page on page — things never said
give truth a map to find us