This poem is taken from PN Review 209, Volume 39 Number 3, January - February 2013.

Daughter

Sinéad Morrissey
after Robert Pinsky

I

She wakes at 7am -
her internal clock
unstintingly accurate -
and can sleep twelve hours
at a stretch without
losing hold of her last thought.
The grievance she fell
asleep with: you didn't
get me rice milk
or
you didn't sing me
song 'bout Tommy Thumb -

her dawn declaration.
Though she'll also ask
is it morning?
just to check
she hasn't missed
the best and purest
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