A Child's Faith

by Lucille Brokaw, my grandmother. To Mary Esther in memory of Bill, who was killed June 2, 1941, as test pilot.

They say my daddy died.
He did not die!
Why just tonight I heard him fly
Above my roof.
Is that not proof
That he's alive and breathing where
The world is safe and free from care?

They say he "Folded wings at sea."
But Daddy would have wanted me
To doubt those things.
You can't fold wings
That for a lifetime have been spread
To fly above a first child's head.

Tonight when all the world is still
I'll lean upon my window sill
And listen to you, Daddy Bill;
And though the whole world fails to note
A fast approaching flying boat
With ghostly motors in its throat
I'll hear it come, and I shall be
Proud, proud that you flew "East" to me
On wings that no one else can see.