Dancing with Grace

I'm dancing with Grace,
her hand to my shoulder,
the other joined in kind.
A view of what could be,
for a daughter entombed,
present in my arms tonight.

Kindly relation dear stranger,
you could be the one,
my little girl reborn.
Divine grant me this echo,
beautiful revenant corporal
of a daughter now passed.

What could she have been,
I may never know for sure,
but in your image I am assured.
I acclaim your achievements,
your elegance and beauty,
of age as the one not here.

You honor her and all your kind,
in your life's ways, choices made,
to the best of what could be.
I'm dancing with Grace,
you truly are not her,
fair clue of what could have been.

© 2015. Sean Green. All Rights Reserved

I had an interesting conversation with a fellow dance. He said he was reluctant to ask the young ladies to dance because he was not sure how young they were. I said that I couldn't tell either, and this instead gave me free reign to ask any of them. Later I considered that these young ladies are the age that daughter Grace would have been if she was not a stillbirth at nine months. Now I dance with partners who echo what my daughter could have been. The poem “Dancing With Grace” is about this experience.