My little sister's dad is dying.
That is to say, a friend so close
I call her sister
A man so close
I call him father.
So close, yet I can no longer see him
So far away, yet I recognise his voice.
It is the same voice
That called us in from play as children,
That sang for us and the Lord in church,
And now the Lord is taking him back,
And it hurts! Lord all mighty,
It hurts so much,
To watch a father slip away,
To see a sister turn her back,
To see her as a slab of steel,
Yet know she has shattered ice inside,
A million tiny pieces
That I promised her
And her father
And my Lord
And myself
That I would fix together again,
Either fix or melt away.
But it takes the child of God to fix the dead,
And though I am a daughter,
It is to a mortal father,
And my own sheild is
breaking
breaking
breaking down,
And the only gift I can give my sister
Is the life she already has.