Hide 'n' Seek

Hide 'n' Seek

Moments ago, she was playing with me--
Hide 'n' seek, her favorite game.
I didn't know there was an enemy
waiting in my back yard.

Turned my back for only a minute
and she was gone.
I searched in the closet,
I searched in the kitchen
I searched in the basement,
heart pounding, deafening.

No sound from her anywhere,
and now she's not just hiding, she's missing.
God, I promise
I will never turn my back on her again
if I could only find her now.
Oh Lord, give me this one chance,
let me find her this one time!

Running to the back yard,
searching everywhere at once.
At last I hear
tiny sounds coming from the
swimming pool, where soft eddies touch the side.

She wanted to go swimming yesterday,
but it was raining.
We didn't have time
to go swimming today. But now there's
no time at all, no time to spare.

Not just hiding!
My sweet little one
was curled on the bottom,
and not even baby bubbles rose to the surface
to show that her life
was once here.


Starr Rathburn
Sept. 17, 2003

Drowning is one of the most common ways for youngsters to die in Florida. Teach your young ones to swim as soon as they're able to walk!

[Note: this poem, like almost everything in my port, is fiction.]
Thank you for the awardicon, Anthony D Redden .

One of the "My Midnight Heart" .