There's A Certain Slant Of Chance Poem by Kelsey Binder

There's a certain slant of chance
In every ending
For underneath lays
Thousands of new beginnings

A relentless life
Chicks and bars
Never unwinding
Chaos and cars

He was in it for the adventure
For the high
Of life beyond simple pleasure
To taste the wind and touch the sky

Never a boy of composure
Nor ever a man;
He had but a temper
Never contained his hand

He wanted to fly instead
Said he'd never take the easy way out
And he dreamed while watching a bullet spin-
through his best friend's head
Taking that as something to go on about

Cleaned up, washed up, matured;
He looked over at a woman and saw
Help was in those hands of hers
A cold soul began to thaw

He knew her before
In a lifetime before this
When there was nothing in life to adjourn
And he had never been kissed

She cried and pleaded
To him
His help-or hand, rather-she needed
Hope was slim

He glimpsed his life in the coming of ages
When he looked at her hands
And saw a baby girl with so many unwritten pages
And no father to withstand

Just shy of thirty
He signed those papers
For he was worthy
But this wasn't any favor

He came to love the color pink
Play barbies and house
Teach her the ropes of a skating rink
Learned he liked green eggs and ham, even with a mouse

She grew on him
And him on her
She grew up to match his ways
He was proud of the life she yearned

She knows today
She wouldn't be the same
If he hadn't listened to her mother's say
If he hadn't removed all the shame

They fit in odd ways
-Father and daughter-hard to believe they're not blood
Love comes in many shades
But they swarmed each other like a flood

Somehow, someone knew
He needed her, as she would need him
Chance brought her to
A life not so grim

He gave her a meaning
He added color
He showed another path;
Lifted the branches for her

He became a father
She knew him since she could blink
He never saw it coming
Though he swears he wouldn't trade-he'd swear in ink

She wonders today
Was it odd when she started calling him 'dad'?
She doesn't know how to say
All that she knows-oh, she knows-
All that she wouldn't have

So now, as he lays
In tubes and white sheets
She prays
And his mind fleets

A collapsed chest
She feels it too
No one really knows what's next
There's not a thing she can do

To ease the pain
She has no ability
To help her father
Who helped her so dearly

She wants to seem fine
Uneasiness sets her to sway
All she can do is rhyme-trying to find the right lines
Of all days
Today, is her father's birthday