I pray these walls don’t memorize
the way I tremble when she cries;
I’ve knelt beside her tiny bed,
rewriting every word I said
when rage was loud and love was blind—
now I see men through father’s eyes.
Let the night lose its teeth,
let her dreams keep their innocence;
I’ll trade every platinum chain
for a fence around her innocence.
May the world never speak her name
in any sentence that starts with blame.