fourth birthday

She was only three, 
the most beautiful of god’s gifts
when she lost the shade of her father
and the tender touch of her mother.
Alone she cried for days,
wanting her mother to listen to her
and to curl her up into her gossamer arms,
her face drooped down more everyday and
everyday, her cries drowned meeker
when she was taken into an orphanage.

Betwixt the arms of lady, she came in,
her gaze walked over different new faces,
the children there poked her cheeks and kissed her fingers while
she just kept staring them in such amazement
that her tiny ogling eyes forgot to cry, for the first time.

* -- *

Tomorrow arrives her fourth birthday
and today a couple is seated before the lady.
A girl they wish to take home,

like the sun stretches its yellow cover
a girl they desire to spill their love over.
So, depart she will today
and my eyes will not meet hers on her fourth birthday.