Her First Night and Simpler Times

He must have glanced down to marvel at her body trembling  
with vigor. She was like a young stallion finding her legs.  
Her strength and grace had grown  
from a childhood spent in dance classes.
 
I'd spent spent years watching her skills and confidence increase.  
The boy who took her that night must have seen the pride in my eyes.  
He knew I loved my daughter, a precious girl always amazed with life.
 
The unworthy boy and his naive lover didn't speak,  
but must have held each other as if a gust of wind might  
blow them apart at any moment.
 
I stood silent in the hallway and heard their soft reports.  
Two bodies shuffled atop a hand-me-down mattress
where she'd been conceived seventeen years earlier.
When I heard the sweet tone of her raspy panting,  
I knew what she gave in that moment.  
 
The only witnesses to their sin were walls  
lined in family photos, cheer awards, and  
a doll from a childhood left behind.