My Daughter

A small child in Tiruchirapalli, India
Called me "Dad";
Even though I am only twenty five
And my girlfriend & I are happy
With our relationship
At where it stands.

To be a father,
You don't need to marry
And Conceive a child.

Instead you can simply visit www.savegirlchild.org
And donate 10 dollars a month;
And simply with that
You can become a father
The careholder of a little child
Across borders
Millions of miles away
In a small village at the middle of nowhere.

Her name is "Asha"
It means hope,
It means she can put behind her dungy days
Sleeping on pavements , crying out loud
Without even an ounce of "roti" and a cup of warm milk
Unbeknownst of her drunk 'father'
Whose one dark whim
In a shady, autumn night
With a hapless and ill fated teenager of barely fifteen years
Created her.

She is five years old now,
They are teaching her Hindi & Malayalam
And a little bit of English.
So that she can stand up
And outpour words and letter in a journal
Fill the pages with light and hope.
She might once write a letter to me as well.

They say she can say "Appa" now
Which means father.
They have told her of me.
I wonder what goes across her little, troubled mind
How she relates to father
Unseen and Unheard
A man who sends few green colored papers to take care of her.

I want to meet "Asha",
Talk to her
Look at her innocent, deep black eyes
And smudgy nose
And call her "Beti".
Run with her in the dusty village road
Which heads to the blue mountains
Peek into her classroom from the window
And watch her learn and grow.
Tell her stories of Rapunzel and Hans Christian Andersen
And how fairy tales are real.

I want to answer all her questions
That visits her mind and tell her how she is so special.
I want to watch her grow every moment
And to see her transformation from a tiny little bud
To a wonderful flower.

I wait for the time
When her hands will hold a pen
And write a letter
Which would look something like this
" Dear Papa,
Wherever you are,
Whatever you do,
I can feel the shower of love and blessings
That is on me always
Because of you.
I have no complaints,
I have no issues.
I have no doubts
For I from the bottom of my heart
Know that I love you
And that you love me too"

She could one day be a Doctor
Or an Engineer
Transform lives of people
Near and About her.

But I feel she will be a Poet
Who would write
Use free , liberated verses
To fight and strive
Against the bitter sweet world
Make it better
Fill it with hope
For more "Asha's".

Whatever she does,
I know my "Asha"
Will make me proud
One day. Someday.



© Nothing Personal. December 21, 2010.

Reviews

[.]

. next year ... i will go and visit her for you ... 99% ... and this message is critical for the anthology ... thank you for this ... (as you know i am freezing the content on thursday so this really helps) ... btw, you are a remarkable father ...

[JanieB]

Good write.
I pray one day soon you will meet with Asha / Beti. Can you imagine how she will feel ,having someone who cares about her, and is helping her financially? Bless her..little soul.

[Deactivated_BurningDemo..]

This is really touching. I know that it has no bearing to this poem but my dad left us and I would give everything to have a caring father like you. I hope that Asha grows up and you get to meet her one day.

The poem itself was written well and conveyed all the emotions that you wrote it with. A great read.

[Ice QueenJen]

What a lovely and heartfelt writing for a daughter you have yet to meet. I hope you continue to update us with how she is doing.

[Kaitlyn]

Very personal I love it :)

[Jordan]

This was nice. The content is so important, though, that it almost seems to warrant a more accessible form. Like just a couple paragraphs where you tell the girl's story and give the link where people can go to help.

I know this is nitpicky, but it drove me insane- but I think in the first stanza it should be "my girlfriend & I are happy". Unless of course, you meant for it to be like that.

[Zoe Jay]

This is really good. It is very well written and very direct. It's a "connected" poem. It has the feel of an anecdote so much that it is actually hard to critique it as a piece of poetry. The writing is excellent and the sections are long enough to give the story flow, but short enough to make it easy to read and digest. Good structure. Very important message which really makes us connect with the act of donation, which is something which often feels very distant to us these days, when charity has been sanitized.... and you have summarized this also with the line "sending colored green papers" etc. But you make this situation live. I love the contrast between the image portrayed of Asha's real father, and the love of those who care. Great poem and great sentiment.

[Hello, Goodbye]

Very personal and out-ranged in its content. Good message delivered..

[Brian W. Hastings]

You, my friend have just explained a very important part of being human. I am not going to go into what my beliefs really are but I will say that - to me - the thing that separates us from the "Two Leggeds" is when we make an impact on at least one other person in the world. There are feelings, that come with this act and they are extremely hard to put into words but you summed up those emotions nicely in this.

[Zeitgeist Manifesto]

Beautiful work!
You really have done a wonderful thing.

[Goodbye]

This is so sweet - what a great way of putting forth your message in a very real way - not disconnected like so many others.