Sean Rima: Poem for my Daughter on Opening Night

…wrote this one after I attended my daughter’s first leading role in a show. She is opening tonight in “Little Shop of Horrors”! I love you, baby. You make me very proud.

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Ovation.

She comes out last,
her eyes tired but filled with joy,
and as the house lights come-
up, the audience roars,
then stands,
the flats
of their hands
clapping high above
their heads like the
wings of a

hundred doves
being released
from a church
after a wedding,
and as she takes her
bows and her friends
surround her

with hugs and flowers,

I shrink back into the crowd,

and with tears of pride
burning into my
face and a

smile from ear-to-ear,

I whisper,
to my daughter,
so only God and me
can hear, “that

was f–king badass…!”

__

Copyright 2019 by Sean Rima.

“Poems” by Sean Rima to be released by Lulu Press on May 11.