Dear Santa

CARRY ON TUESDAY
http://carryontuesdayprompt.blogspot.com/2010/12/carry-on-christmas.html
The words in blue are the first words of a child's Xmas letter.

DEAR SANTA

Dear Santa, find room in your sack

To bring my darling Daddy back!

Mummy says a war began

In somewhere called Afghanistan.

We've put Daddy's present by the tree

And he should open it with me!

You're magic, Santa, so I know

You could  could fly through all that snow

On that very clever sleigh

And bring him here for Xmas Day!

Daddy could hang on at the back

If there's no room in your sack!

Mummy's going to sign her name,

Because she's feeling just the same.

*

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With my sister, Mollee, on the left.

IN MEMORY

My father and I were never close

He was a deeply religious man

And I was a frivolous disappointment.

A disappointment that was never hidden.

*

We found it difficult to converse at times.

I was my mother's daughter.

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My father died

When I was heavily pregnant and in Africa.

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I sent flowers.

I felt sad.

I knew something momentous had occurred.

But the purchase of a headstone

Never entered my mind.

*

Years later, 

On holiday in England,

I went to visit his grave

With my cousin.

We could not find it!

*

The graveyard was unkempt,

Uncared-for.

My conscience smote me.

*

On my return to Australia

I dedicated a stone to his memory

In the Newcastle Cathedral grounds.

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He would have been pleased.

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He would be pleased

With this poem too.

*