One night

a father

is out

buying pawns

at the pawn shop,

daughter by his side.

“This place

is just a short trip

from home,” he says.

“It’s the only place to go

that isn’t home,”

she replies.

When he returns home,

he writes about

his daughter’s experience .

He writes that she

tries to run away

because she’s been told

for so long

that there is no escape.

He writes that she cries

when he asks her,

“How did you get here?”

He writes that

she comes from

the north of England,

that she leaves

her passport

in a corner

of her room.

He writes that he asks,

“Where is your mother?”

and she says she had

to leave her behind.

She says

her mother

had started

losing her red hair

in a graceful way.

She says

her mother,

“is a very capable person.”

He writes

the word “capable”

in capital letters

and underlines it twice.