Firstborn babe, sleeping peacefully in a lavender room,
Soft purple curtains flutter out over light purple walls,
Her grandmother’s very image, her father’s deepest pride,
He holds her in a lavender rocking chair, gently rocking her to sleep as a young golden retriever places a ball upon his lap,
My heart lies with her…

Little girl running barefoot through a muddy Iowa farm,
Long tangled hair, face kissed by the sun,
Brown dress, brown hair, brown feet, brown everything on a late summer’s day,
Dark hazel eyes, tinged with golden-brown,
My heart lies with her…

Child prodigy, sitting in a tiny green chair on the first day of school,
Mismatched pigtails and skinned-up knees, reading titles from a pint-sized bookshelf,
Her teacher marveling that she has been reading since before the age of two,
Playing upon a field of green grass, she dances through her childhood in a breathtaking, glorious spring,
My heart lies with her…

Young woman, nearly grown in a kaleidoscope of vibrant hues, her fingers stained with paint and ink,
Red and blue and orange and yellow, her mind a jumble of intricate drawings and sketches,
Almost two decades passing by in the span of a moment,
She dreams and grows with an artist’s heart, untapped potential teetering on the very brink of a colorful future,
My heart lies with her…

And even when the years mold my memories into a much softer glow, I believe I shall still see,
A baby sleeping peacefully in lavender. A little girl with muddy feet running through a field with wild abandon, tracking her footprints forever onto my heart. A young woman bent over a sketchbook, frantically drawing.
Her life a symphony of bold, joyous colors, her golden hue to my silver, the baton eventually passing between us,
And her heart will lie with me…