Where are you?


Are you thinking of me,
As you lie under the stars
Far across the sea?


When the noise all starts,
I shuffle to be near,
And then I remember
That you’re just not here.


Can’t you come back,
And leave that terrible place behind?


I’m sure that, up in Heaven,
God and his angels won’t mind.


Yesterday those men in suits sent a letter.


It told us you got hurt.


How could they so naturally
Make its tone cold and words curt?


Mama said that they’re proud
That you’re way over there.


But sometimes I wonder
Do those men in suits really care?


The letter so harshly told me
That my daddy got shot.


It says that they’re sorry, but
Do they care or not?


The permission for you to come back
Was not included before the letter was sealed.


How could those clever men
Not know that your heart won’t be healed?


I want you to know
That I’m waiting for you.


I want you to hug me,
And kiss Mama too.


Daddy, come back,
I don’t like it when you’re not near.


You’re not here to tell me to be brave,
So I hide my face and cry my little tear.


I don’t know if you understand
How much I want you back in my life.


I want you, this Sunday,
To cut the beef with Mama’s knife.


Because it’s the littlest things
From back in the good old days
That I miss the most when
I don’t know where your head lays.


So can you come back soon,
And leave that bad place behind,
Because in my heart I now know,
God and his angels don’t mind.

By Emma Bessent, 12