Left with Goodbye

I was shaken by your innocence-
The petals pooling around your ankles
As you played roulette
With a simple drooping daisy.

Thorn bushes catch your dress.
Blackberries catch your eyes.
Licking your lips appreciatively,
You recall the doorstep I can't forget.

Reluctantly, you race to me,
Reigning the reeds and the wind.
Retying you shoelace, I drag you along.
Removed, I traipse to your door.

I was shaken by my ignorance,
(Of circumstances far from home
Of how to let a child go
Into nightmares beyond my truths.)

Drunkenly, they chastised you
For choking on the pungent smoke.
So silently I watched you sink
Into bruises and stagnant sin.

Floundering, faltering, I fidgeted
Postponing reality for seconds or years.
Finally failing, my words slipped away,
And the one that was left was “Goodbye”