Can You Help Me Find My Daddy?

A tiny little girl stood alone, jostled and shoved by the harried commuters rushing by her. No-one noticed the trickle of tears running down her freckled face. Not a single soul rushing past wondered why such a little girl stood all alone on the train platform. No-one bothered to stop, they didn’t have time.  Places to go, people to see, duties to attend to. Had anyone taken a brief moment to listen, they might have heard her plea:

“Can you help me find my daddy?
I don’t know where he’s gone
He just didn’t come home yesterday
and that made me scared
I’ve had lots and lots of daddy’s
but I liked this one the best
I don’t remember his name, I didn’t know him very long
Some days he didn’t hit me and call me swear words
and lots of days he didn’t yell at me too much
He made my mommy cry a lot and that made me sad
but he always came back home the next night
Sometimes he would scream and break things
Then mommy would get him a drink and he would stop
Drinks made him wobble when he walked; that made me laugh
I thought he was playing a game of let’s pretend
I play that game sometimes with my dolls and it’s fun
One time he brought me a great big pizza
and I slept with a full tummy and that made me happy
Sometimes he touched me bad; I didn’t like that
It hurt and it made me cry
Then last night he just held me
he stroked my hair and rocked me
And that felt good and made me happy
Can you help me find my daddy”?