Father, I know to you I'll always be
a little girl, too young to understand.
Much too small and fragile to be free,
needing someone there to hold my hand.
But like a flower grown inside a box,
a crack of light was found and drew me near.
The jail you called my childhood had no locks
and I escaped the moment the coast was clear.
I guess it made you sad to see me grown,
it made you realize your own late age.
Or maybe you were afraid to be alone.
And so you kept me captive in a cage.
You could have let me just grow up and stay.
But you couldn't. So I had to grow away. 


by Lisa (Teel) Rodriguez
1982