Let me say first about my daughter

That she is beautiful and smart

That she is compassionate and fair-minded

Creative and forgiving

Funny and loving.

Let me say second

That my judgment in this matter is not

Influenced by our consanguinity

But is a product of cold scrutiny

Over a period of many years.

You can take my word for it.

The third thing I want to say

Is more difficult

It’s that when I am gone

And there is a whole world in which I do not exist

Indeed this very world

I hope she remembers that I loved her

And that my love survives

My absence.