Infants Remembered In Silence (IRIS) - Poems

Daddy’s Tears

by Daddy, Tom Dutkiewicz

In loving memory of Avonlea Autumn Dutkiewicz

Please don’t cry, peanut.
Daddy’s here to take care of you.
Daddy loves you.

Avonlea Autumn Dutkiewicz,
please don’t cry.
Why do you cry so much, peanut?

Daddy’s here to take care of you.
Talk to me, sweetheart,
are you tired,
are you hungry,
are you sick?
Because I keep calling your name,
you do not answer.
Avonlea, you must have been tired, for you sleep so long.
Please wake up, sweetheart.
Daddy wants to hug his little girl again.

Because you sleep,
I cannot cry with you or for you.
I still hear crying
“is that you Avonlea?”
I get no answer.
I see tears,
“are these your tears, Avonlea?”

I call out
“here I am, peanut,
Daddy will hold you.”
Still no answer,
my calling out is in vain.
Then I realize
the cries of pain I heard,
and the tears of grief that I saw,
were not yours, peanut,
for you are gone.
The cries that I heard
and the tears that I saw,
they were mine.

They were Daddy’s Tears.

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