To a Sad Daughter | Poem

To a Sad Daughter Poem Text

All night long the hockey pictures

gaze down at you sleeping in your tracksuit.

Belligerent goalies are your ideal.

Threats of being traded

cuts and wounds

—all this pleases you.

O My god! you say at breakfast

reading the sports page over the Alpen

as another player breaks his ankle

or assaults the coach.                                                10

When I thought of daughters

I wasn't expecting this

but I like this more.

I like all your faults

even your purple moods                                            15

when you retreat from everyone

to sit in bed under a quilt.

And when I say 'like'

I mean of course 'love'

but that embarrasses you.                                           20

You who feel superior to black and white movies

(coaxed for hours to see Casablanca

though you were moved

...
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