Calibrated Cousins

The wood-framed square
Shows a girl staring back at me
With the same hair
The same eyes
The same smile
But she’s not me.

The girl I see is lost
With only love keeping her
On the ground
She’s lost her compass-
With no sense of direction
In life.

We’re exactly the same
But not the same person
Both trying to find ourselves
In a dark, pitch-black cave ;
She’s on a journey
Just too many years later than me.

This girl is an artist –
A poet
A photographer
Inspired
And thoughtful
A calibrated version of me.

She’s lost her father –
And so have I, in theory.
He’s slipping through my reach
But this girl makes me realize
That he’ll be gone
Much too soon.

We’re not close
But we’re the same person;
And sometimes I wonder
If we’ll ever really meet.
But until we do
I’ll just keep praying for her

Hoping that she finds her way
So I can, too.