A little girl sat on the swing set

When I took the dog before dawn.

I almost missed her quiet face

But the moon was still in form

Her face was streaked with tears

In her hands she clutched a cloth

With which she tried to cover her face

Fear upon her visage wrought. 

I almost asked the obvious question

‘How did you get in here?’ Something

Stopped me, I looked at her, almost

Translucent in the depleting night.

She cried corpulent tears

I almost missed her whispered plea

“I want my mother, where is my mother?

She said she would come back for me!”

“Where do you stay?” I asked, distraught

“Everywhere, in places you do not see

Don’t leave me behind, take me home.

I too have” she proudly said, “a family.”

While I was pondering the logistics 

Of how and who and what and when

The chance to save her slipped away, 

For she was gone when I looked again.

I went back to bed, sleeplessly tossed

Convinced it was a dream. I found her.

In the hungry eyes of the morning news. 

Brooding black eyes looking straight at me.