Daniel Romo

Blending

for Maya and Maria

The art of healing is studied by examining
the amount of mourning left within the man,
a craft best appreciated by those
keen enough to understand
there’s no set recovery time for growth
or grace.

Choosing to let in someone new
is a testament to forgiveness and faith
not dependent upon one’s past,
and I’ve learned not to dwell on my mistakes
that may have actually been
unrealized forms of peaceful
escape.

A woman is made from an unblemished rib,
a divine creation resulting in
man’s instant companionship.
Where two or three are gathered
so is God
and a new beginning.

I can’t see where this is going,
the meeting of my daughter and the new
woman in my life,
the way I sensed the oncoming collision between
foreshadowing and fruition surrounding
the needed restoration of my belief.

Maybe they’ll be introduced over dinner,
or at a theme park,
or at any other disarming setting in which
a hopeful dad attempts to be both
builder and bridge
to these new relationships.

I’m not certain how my daughter will react
to learning that someone else also
sits shotgun in my passenger seat
when she’s not riding
with me.
I‘m unsure as to how she’ll feel knowing
my affection is now also for a woman
who will never be
her mother.
Because no matter how similar
their DNA displays a resemblance
remarked upon by strangers,
even a father’s best intentions can’t ensure
his daughter will love
all that he loves.
The same last name doesn’t guarantee
identical feelings.
But one can never discount the way the seasons change,
gradually giving itself to the next,
as if God
knew what He was doing
all along.

Spirit

Who among us can calculate the hypotenuse
of Heaven?

Which sinner down below can decipher
the formula for salvation and
an unknown variable?

Being swallowed and then stranded in the belly of a whale
is every dark place you were in
before managing to find and light the wick coded in better days
and belief.

No one beats around a burning bush when concerning
the volume of eternity.

What happens when the body exposes the destination of the soul?

There’s no question too complex to be answered in time
and transcendence.

Daniel Romo is the author of Apologies in Reverse (FutureCycle Press 2019), When Kerosene’s Involved (Mojave River Press, 2014), and Romancing Gravity (Silver Birch Press, 2013). He lives and teaches in Long Beach, CA. More at danielromo.net.

Next (Terry Minchow-Proffitt) >
< Previous (LindaAnn LoSchiavo)