Daddy’s Little Girl

• Teagan Moses, Grade 11
• Poetry
• 2019

That smell always comes with the sight of that man
and the sight of that man always comes with that smell;
she’s never had one without the other.

He enfolds her in his arms, it’s love’s physical connection.
Small fingers reaching, reaching, can’t reach
around all of his squishiness.
Chubby fingers instead cling onto his ribbed wool jumper.

Her skin, delicate as the moment itself,
is exposed to the corruption of his face.
The short stumps of grain hairs others call manly and rugged,
she calls spiky and ouchy .

He squeezes tight, increasing the pressure
and the love per square inch.
She can see the happy wrinkles of his eyes, hazel like hers.

If she’s his Princess, he’s her King.
Finally, Daddy’s home.