Skylar sits on the seawall, looking out the harbor,
at the sun slipping away the white lights of the city shining.
She drinks overpriced and sickly sweet coffee, and hopes
that all this longing will slip away, like the sun.
Dad didn’t want her, only her older sister was adored.
Skylar wonders, can she take a star down from that distant sky
and make it crown upon her head, holy and sacred light
to dazzle Dad, so she can be adored too, catch his eye.
Dad thought he ruled this city, thinks now he is king.
And the hot and sweet coffee stings her tongue, like the
days when he wasn’t there. Even a monster’s daughter
wants daddy to be proud of her.
There’s a party with her rich friends tonight, she might go.
The opulent places in the towers that mock the sky and sun.
Maybe we’ll be struck down, our words confused, for the hubris.
The coffee now gone, she walks back to her apartment, unsure, aching.
