1. A Girl
By Drew Benzaia

2. She was a miracle child,
Born to a mother who had failed
countless times before in her efforts to
become pregnant,
And a father who would give up his life to
see his family happy.

3. They named her Bianca, meaning white
or shining in Italian.

4. At four, she was already a firecracker.

5. Light danced in her blue eyes, and her long,
dark hair-
Wavy, like her mother’s-
Bounced in the wind as she flew everywhere
her little feet would carry her.

6. At eighteen, no one could
tie her down.

7. Her long hair was bleached blonde,
The top of her head constantly adorned with a flower
crown.
She was recognized everywhere as the girl with the
long legs and mouth that got her in trouble.

8. Her life was kissing boys on
tiptoes,
Laughing with friends,
And traveling the world.
A blur of memories.

9. At twenty six, she fell
in love.

10. She had never before believed
her mother’s stories about soul
mates, or girls finding princes.

11. The she found someone who put up
with her mouth.
Moved with her instead of trying to pin
her down.
And loved every one of her flaws.

12. At forty, she was a mother, suffering from
the same conception problems as her
mother, who had passed years ago.

13. Yet she gave birth to a little girl,
Kennedy, with her own blue eyes and
the blonde hair she had always wanted.

14. And she was complete.

15. At seventy, her father passed
at the age of one hundred
and four.

16. And she gave away her daughter to the
trouble maker she had never liked.

17. He reminded her too much of
herself,
And the motorcycle he drove didn’t
make her like him any more.

18. Her husband held her left hand at the
wedding, and she wished her father could
be there to hold her right.

19. At eighty five, she lost her other half.

20. Visions of their love story swam
through her mind as tears swam in
her eyes.

21. He was supposed to always be
hers.

22. At ninety three, she lay in bed, the last of her
strength dripping away.
Her daughter, married now for twenty three
years, clung to her hand.

23. Laying her head down on her mother’s chest,
she whispered “You are my inspiration.”
Her mother laughed and whispered the last of
her words faintly into her daughter’s ear.

24. “My dearest darling,
I am just a girl.”

25. Poem by Drew Benzaia
Thanks to Bianca Benincasa for letting me
use her name!

THE END