First you crawl to me
then your first steps
circle my legs
and boom!
you are taller than me
and you run for the plane
and vanish from
some windy platform
as if swooped up
by a hawk.
How is it that you and I are strangers
when yesterday we lived in this world
laced like a vine on a trellis?
Here in this same town, same house
making the same bean and cheese burrito?
The shrink's diagnosis: manhood.
He says you will cross many rivers
many times, many bridges on your journey.
He says that's life: one day manhood
seems so far ahead and boom!
one day a man stands before you.
Sobered, I walk the trail home
and meet a sweet horse that gallops
along the gate, he eager
to keep pace and I think
of my boy.
Each night comes a dream of you
on your bike,
you racing beside me,
the joy on your face.
My joy.
