for sarah.

it’s eating you inside, tiny princess.
i can hear it in your pauses, in your
excitement, in my foreign accent.
torn between four cities, two lives,
one of uncertainty, romance
the other – negotiations, wages, industrial action averted -
a mother’s heart and a father’s weakening touch.

i can hear it, tiny princess.
as much as fear can be transmitted
over land, undersea, in a cable,
in the gut of a man i do not know.

stay strong, tiny princess.
you’re doing fine
and i’ll be home soon.