'Did You Bring Me Anything', Gary Margolis

[mercifulserpent]

'Did You Bring Me Anything', Gary Margolis

I know it's your birthday and I am an hour
late. I didn't think there would be another
girl for me to talk with, as I was putting on my

coat, turning off the light. Soft touch or not,
you know how hard it is for me to say no
when someone asks to speak with me and it is

their eyes that say first what they have
to say. I've read all the numbers that make me
sick about men who never learned to take

no for an answer and turn themselves into a cruel
statistic, turning a girl, most often
a friend, into another word, through no

choice of hers, she now must call herself.
I don't want to think of you this way,
especially today as you turn six, but having

just told another student it's not her fault,
I must find the words no father can give you
to use some night when there are only miles

between us. Words, I hope, your date's father
has taught his son to hear, even if there were nights
he was late getting home, with nothing in his hands.