Rapunzel: A Poem for Counting Fifty Nights

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Braiding by candle light,
I offer: scootch closer
You ask: how does that song end?
I sing: God bless the moon; God
bless me; God, bless the one that I can’t see
You say: Mom, I want a tattoo
of the moon, full and glossy with hope and
I want you to get one too, then
we will match
I say: wait and see,
wait until you are eighteen honey
and see
through the skylight above the tub
how the gentle moon quivers in milky shimmer –
vigilant, as if God hung it there to stand guard over
another mom and another girl:
thousands of miles away yet
closer than close, breathing in my ear
this mom sings, and this girl asks but
they cannot hear each other
each waits in the dark, counting:
night day night day night day night day night day
night day night day night day night day night day
night day night day night day night day night day
night day night day night day night day night day
night day night day night day night day night day
night day night day night day night day night day
night day night day night day night day night day
night day night day night day night day night day
night day night day night day night day night day
night day night day night day night day night day
longing and hoping and praying
to feel hands braiding hair again