Lighthouse by Sabyne Pierre

And my mother once told me I was made of stars

Filled with galaxies of stories and secrets and witnessing the best and the worst the world

has to offer

I saw my dad look at her once like she was the lighthouse that would bring him home to her,

I watched him lose sight of it all in a riptide of uncertainties and fear of commitment once the

sun set.

One night,

I watched as my nephew entered this world, fighting & screaming for fear that this life

wouldn't be all that it's cracked up to be.

I'm starting to see what he means.

 

A breeze found its way through my open window

With sirens about three boys whose breaths were stolen from them.

With that, three young women--Biles, Manuel, and Carter win Olympic gold medals and I

can't help but wonder,

With unjust deaths and just victories and everything in between,

Why does it always feel like we’ve lost sight of the light before?

 

If I am ashore, now, who has lost sight of me?

 

I have watched men drown.

 

My father,

then you.