If I could hug you one last time
And hold you in my arms
To keep you safe and close to me
Away from worldly harms
The first time that I held you
Looking down at the most perfect face
I cradled you for hours
As if to catch up in an impossible race
Each snuggle is now a memory
That I try to stop from fading
I hold them as I once held you
Looking in with tears cascading
I can’t hold you the way I did then
Now I hold you in other ways
Sometimes this feels enough
But those are better days
I do at times feel you close
A kind of knowing from somewhere other
A moment of love that comes over me
Leaving me desperate for another
Though to you my arms are useless
I still consider myself blessed
Where we are and where we’ve come from
Is hard to grasp and to digest
So as I tuck your sisters into bed
And hold them close each night
I know that they wouldn’t be here
Without your guiding light
I hope somehow this finds you
In some unknowing way
As every hug to them is shared with you
Especially on national hugging day
