Daddy's Girls

by Laura Foley

He wanted a boy so badly,

he called four girls

a Chinese curse,

blamed our mother,

haunted us, his

unwanted daughters.

Kiss me, he'd insist...

Quickly, we learned

to turn away,

duck his gaze,

but still he broke us,

two to madness,

one to meanness,

one to poetry.

* * * * *

“Daddy’s Girls” was first published in Night Ringing (Headmistress Press).

Laura Foley is the author of six poetry collections, including, most recently, WTF and Night Ringing. Her poem “Gratitude List” won the Common Good Books poetry contest and was read by Garrison Keillor on The Writer’s Almanac. Her poem “Nine Ways of Looking at Light” won the Joe Gouveia Outermost Poetry Contest, judged by Marge Piercy. A palliative care volunteer in hospitals, with an M.A. and a M. Phil. in English Lit. from Columbia University, she lives with her partner, and three big dogs among the hills of Vermont.