What is the main conflict in To a Sad Daughter by Michael Ondaatje?

While the title identifies the daughter as melancholy or grieving, she is not actually present in the work, and so we must consider the word "sad" as only an interpretation of the father's. After reading the poem, we may also consider that the doleful adjective is really a reflection of the speaker's own emotion and that he too experiences the apprehension, blue funk, and growing pains that his adolescent daughter does.