Incorporeal

I sometimes wish to hold your hands,

To kiss you on the cheek,

The tip of your nose,

The crown of your head,

To pick you up and cradle you close to me,

To brush your hair away from your face,

To tuck it away in neat plaits with cute little hair ties,

Yet sometimes I also wish to slap you,

To kick you,

To lock your cruel little heart in a cage,

To lay your lifeless corpse to rest,

Delicately,

Carefully,

At the bottom of the ocean weighed down with rocks,

And then I would weep,

Weep for the thought that I could be so cruel to my past self,

Because you never really were bad, were you?
You were a child, how could you be?

But mostly,

Mostly, I like to think,

I wish I could rock you to sleep through the nightmares,

To soothe your too-fast beating heart,

And to finally let you be in peace.