FINALLY

I come downstairs.
Aunt Darnell looks up
from the grill.
“You look beautiful,”
she says.
“Doesn’t she, Thet?”
Thet smiles.
Mom gives me a hug
and I’m off to the park.
The sky is blue.
The air is lemony-warm.
I see him. My dad. Standing near
the Cupid fountain.
I am a bird
in a flowered sundress
flying
finally
into my father’s arms.