Daughter

by Linda Albertson 

Her smile reaches me before I hear her footsteps -
I pull her on like a dressing gown, keep

her smile in the pocket. Smiley-face yellow 
is her favourite colour. 

When she is sad, the skin on her face glows
blonde like a full moon behind cloud. The imprint

of her three-year-old body still lies
warm on my mattress. The wonder is this – 

what I love about her 
I don’t recognise in myself.

Linda Albertson lives and writes on Yuin Country. Her poems have been published in Ginninderra Press anthologies. Her chapbook, Overdue, was published in 2016. @sip_a_poem