The Vow Poem by Patti Masterman

A father and daughter went up to bed
Where he to her some stories read.
She said, 'Oh Father, please tell me true-
Will death not come, for me and you? '

Her father stuttered and rubbed his eyes
Then looked above for reason why
She should look for such an answer-
And how the truth, he must not ransom.

'Oh Sweet of mine, why do you ask;
For we're of flesh, ours is the task
To stay alive, long as we can-
For death comes once, to every man.'

And then she wept, and broke his heart,
'You mean that you and I must part-
Someday, when life has gone away;
Then you will go- but I must stay? '

Thus saying, she broke his heart anew
(Though he must give answers true)
'Yes, or you'd leave first, then me-
Or both at once- however God sees it.'

She thought a while, as tears ran down
Her skinny shoulders toward the ground.
With shaking grief, she gripped him so,
Then proclaimed, 'I'd never let you go.'

And then she slept, with fitful sobs,
Dreaming how of death, she'd rob.
She grew so fast, they soon forgot
The night they sorrowed answers, got.

He died much later; thirty years;
They found him still in bed, but there
A hand around him, locked and fast:
His daughter gone with him, at last.