Silence

Stolen

Spike of ice, stabs my heart,

As I see the other parents depart.

My daughter is nowhere to be seen,

This is so not like her.

This is her first year of school

And four months in she has never been late!

I stride purposefully through the gates,

Searching, scrounging, seeking her within,

Alas it is all in vain, a futile search.

Fear gripping tightly at my strings,

I sprint frantically to my van,

Hot tears streaming down my face.

I refuse to yield to despair...

At least for now.

I rip the door open and seize my phone.

It rings for an eternity,

I bark at the officer on the other side,

"My child! She is gone!"

I remember not much from then on,

It all seems to have folded in and over each other.

A jumbled mess of moments,

Stitched haphazardly together.

As the days go by and no results,

I sink deeper into depression. 

My love, my life, gone in a moment.

...

Like a lightning bolt piercing the sky, 

An epiphany seizes me, takes a firm hold,

I will search for her, no matter how long,

No matter how far I must go.

My daughter I will find! 

New purpose aquired,

New life flowing through me,

I have a purpose again,

A task of epic proportions. 

...

Without a word of goodbye,

I speed my van to who knows where,

A beginning anywhere is better than none.

As the days turn into weeks,

I search on undaunted by the sheer scale,

Of what I endeavour to achieve.

I am filled with hope, a sense of purpose.

I shall succeed where others have failed.

Town after town rolls by,

People questioned, number left behind.

All wish me luck, few actually believe.

I will prove them wrong and this fuels me.

...

Weeks morph into months,

As my van eats up the miles,

Yet no joy do I find in my search.

All I find are others, stripped of loved ones.

I take them to heart, I know their pain,