Sonnet for Molly

for Molly Michele Furbush
                      2.2.08 - 2.8.08



You moved in me like butterflies, light
and tumbled stories of your would-be plights.
You rocked to Beatles and rolled to Brahms

and often woke me to kiss me goodnight.


But little bird, you came too soon
to this city covered in ice and snow.
My little hand-held tinker-doll,
you clung to my fingers and the earth turned


so slow. Your eyes were sealed
but in dreams they are blue
so like your father’s. I saw him in you.


My sweet little should’ve been, I held you to me
and felt your last heart beat sigh with what I wanted to be


but like all perfect things, you had to be free.

c. Melissa K. Furbush, 2008