Nellie is failing.
She is deep in the mine.
The caverns are calling to her.
Voices, somewhere
in the asylum of the darkness.
This is no place for a child.
No place for Nellie’s soul
to be captured.
Her life belongs to light.
Brought to a meadow of grass.
A place where she can count the birds
and feel their lightness.
Expand the wings folded inside her.
In my prayers I call to her,
to follow the sound of other voices.
Her brother and sisters,
who want her to be comforted.
To leave the old clothes
worn out by life,
and look at herself in the mirror
her mother is holding.
A girl,
unafraid and smiling.
Bright as a button.
Unscathed by the labor
of the earth.
Being guided to Heaven,
safe and sound,
loved and happy.