51
DEAR DADDY If I could write to you and speak my mind, I would say that I am mad—enraged—when you cry out, “What is it that I leave behind?” I would tell you: “Me! Your girl! I try so hard to be the “What” to make you proud. But you— Don’t you see that what you leave behind is more than only things? It’s me!—your living child, here to continue your legacy when you leave. You make me need to make you happy. You are broken and cynical, and you are blind to the beauty created by you—our life— and I am hurt, doomed to live your life, forsaken, alone—consumed by misery.
—Briana VinZant