To My Daughter

I hold your hand now
because someday you will not want me to.
I hug and kiss you now
because someday you will not be infront of me.
I tuck you into bed now
because someday
you will tuck others into bed.
I tell you I love you now
because I want you to know it
for all of your life.
You visit me in dreams
from which I awaken feeling your warmth and weight.
I tell you these things now
because you are not absent
but waiting to appear.
Someday you will come into my life
in the flesh
and will know that I have always loved you.


~Adalia