Daddy Love His Daughter
I have a secret kept between a 1,000 Egyptian threads,
hoisting the dirty dead with their hands ,waiting for my skin
to clean and tear away as the thought of you garters
ink around my thigh. The thigh you touched sprawled
on the floor, cold, bare, under a blanket for 14 years.
I was 4 the first time you touched me like that,
we were best friends because you bought me
Barbie dolls and peppermint sticks, you knew
my infant mind would play along—your sick games.
Twister below the waist and school when mommy
was away, anatomy I understood at 5, I understood
it more than the alphabets and numbers.
Did you know in Europe its tradition for a bride
to wear a garter at her wedding? It symbolizes
the deflowering of a woman. I am a woman now,
I was a woman then, I was always a woman,
never a child. You stripped me 2-3 inches wide
around the waist before mommy could teach
about the birds and the bee’s or riding bikes.
Today will be my wedding day and you will walk
me down the aisle because it is tradition. You will be worn
for the original purpose of holding this secret.
Daddy, you’ll walk me down the aisle and undress
me as you did years before and all will see this
secret of ours.
Well this story does seem like something that came from a law and order svu episode. It is a heavy topic but you did a good job of not staying directly on the topic. Bringing up the European traditions and deflowering was a good distraction and it lead you right back to the present situation with all of its irony of having "him" walk the speaker down the isle wearing the garter that "garters ink around my thigh". YOu made the garter one of those concrete objects that stand for something way abstract to the speaker. I enjoyed it alot it was very clever.
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