Daddy, daddy,
if you came,
I’m sure you would still love me
--but would you know me?
if you saw your little girl now,
grown prouder, stronger
become a woman (almost),
finding her own place in the world?

Would you have changed?
Would you be grown older,
or would death have preserved you
in fifty-year vitality
so that you would come back whistling,
making jokes, carrying the world on your shoulders,
the strongest man on earth?

If you came, would you take me in your arms
lift me up and fly me around the world
like you did when I was little?
Daddy, we both know I am not a child any longer
--but somehow I know that if you came
and knew me, and loved me,
we could fix the past
and everything would be all right.