A Daughter’s Unspoken Prayer

I want to please you

No, I want who I am to please you

What I dream, what I wish, what matters to me

I fight for you to let me be

To run as far as I believe I’m able, even if I faint from exhaustion

To taste life’s thrills, even if they are bittersweet

To choose, to act, to go, what and how and when I want

And, I yearn to know you’ll be there

To hold my hand when the road is shaky

To give me the boost that I’m not yet big enough to give myself

To smile and boast and cheer and celebrate

No matter what. No matter what.

I try. I try so hard.

I am of you, but I am not you.

Can you see that?

Hold that?

Celebrate that?

-Alison Young, 2021