Daughter of My Return

I was a ghost before you learned to name me
a shadow carved from concrete and fast cash
the kind of man who smiled at mirrors
but never stayed long enough to see what he became

I missed your first storms
your quiet turning
the way you probably folded pain into silence
and taught yourself not to need anyone

Because that’s what we do in this bloodline
we bury what hurts
and call it strength

the way you bristled when something felt wrong
even as a child
you could spot injustice in a room
and you’d name it
not with words
but with the tilt of your head
the silence that spoke too loud for your age

They called it attitude
but I know now
it was discernment
and you had more of it
than most grown men I ever met

But then you grew
without me
and something holy happened

You built a home from your own rib
and when you opened the door
I stepped through different

I didn’t bring flowers
but I brought mulch
I brought hands that remembered how to build
I brought Saturdays
Home Depot and Lowe’s receipts
and ideas that bloomed in your backyard
like apologies I didn’t know how to say

You let me help
and I helped like it was penance
like every pulled weed was a missed memory
every new fixture a piece of the time I lost

You became everything I could’ve been
if someone had shown me how
You wore the crown I spent my life chasing
and didn’t even need gold to hold it

I didn’t say I love you
but every bolt I tightened
every fence I stood beside
was my silence learning how to speak

And when you carried life
when you brought a new light into the world
I braced myself
I thought I’d be shamed
but instead I was lit up
by the chance to love someone from the very start

Holding him
was like holding all the years I lost with you
but softer
sacred
and without apology

And though I am gone now
if you feel warmth in the yard
or see a nail left in the corner of your project
that was me

I wasn’t the man I should’ve been
but I came back
as best I could
with what I had left

And if I ever mattered
it’s because you still let me
You forgave me
before I even knew how to ask

You were the daughter of my return
the only blueprint I ever followed
the soft place that let me build again

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