Reminiscing In Siberia Poem by Roger Gerald Hicks

My eldest daughter just departed-
left with the new hubby.
She, nearly a half century old
still seems like my little girl.

But there has been so little between us
that all her memories are of her teens;
when she use to visit; trips too short
fueled by tears and mis-understandings.

Where are the memories of her adult
life? Does she remember I put the down
on her house; the deposit for the lawyer
that split the first marriage?

Does she remember me in the hospital
beside her as she held that wildly beating
heart; son born one trimester too early?

She mentions just the restaurant
visited in Hollywood, her hair in a pony tail,
where the waiter made her a huge Shirley
Temple. Mentions safe memories; memories
so distant all the bitterness has evaporated.

I think of ice cubes in the freezer, how left
long enough they disappear. Perhaps all the
hard lumps in our relationship will eventually
flatten. Perhaps then we shall have far more
to discuss.