A Letter to Daughter, in seven parts: Part Five

Part Five:

If our script to the glass to the ocean dams this interconnected one or wastes its chance to speak

The apathy of the crowd may become overwhelming and we have elected our branches’ suicide

We will have done nothing if we abandon the drive of the spermatozoa which formed us

We must wrap in the fervor of the cavalier paladin illuminating the dark blood for an opportunity

To make a damn difference in our howl rampaging as echo beyond the false eternities

That is why you are special; as special as any being blessed with such a cup

Drink or not the flask sits prepared in the aptitude or your mind

Cloud with besotted inebriation of ale, pepper with the accelerant of coffee,

But return to the sobriety of limpid thought

Up, down, big, small, my dear, you are your wonderland

I weep sanguine tears trickling my cheek-beds at the potential of your aspirations

The ration constructed on the shoulders of so many of our genetic predecessors is ballyhooing

In a stadium of books for you to read if you choose

You could listen to the minstrels of Walt Disney or make peace with the commodities of Frito Lay

Or the moneychangers of the Walton temple, these are ingredients of the chowder, yet

One day I hope to teach you the patience of stirring a roux for a gumbo

Adding the flour and oil and keeping watch and in motion the amalgamated mass

To become more than it could be separated, chemistry occurs naturally as heat is applied

Energy is becoming the basis to a meal of shrimp, crab, and oysters from the Gulf of Mexico

Andouille from swine and the knowledge of your Cajun ancestry entwined with the gardens

Of Africa and the sad history of human chattel bringing okra to our Louisiana

This will warm winter bellies and one December from now, maybe you will stir the pot

With memories of these words of a deceased father, knowing what we are beyond aphorisms

That you, me and all people are no different than the plants that led to that flour and oil

No different than the crustaceans and mollusks of the seas or the pig caged to a prison before its slaughter or set to a greater illusion of freedom before a human ceased her respiration.

To part 6