Looking back to those days long gone,
Seventeen and knowing it all,
What could you have told me,
Other than what I didn’t already know.
Looking forward I can now see,
What you strived so hard to pass on,
I’m trapped now,
A trap I set for myself.
How to spring that trap,
The more I fight the tighter it grips,
The more I relax the more I feel the pain,
There must be a way out....
I’d forgotten,
Them,
The kids,
They are the answer.
They are what it was all about,
It was never a trap,
It was an unobserved opportunity,
That was staring me in the face.
I look at them now,
How could I ever have missed that wonder,
That resides in their eyes,
Still so sheltered from life’s brutalities.
That’s my purpose,
To gently ease them into it! ,
To lead them forward in a way that does not scar,
To make sure they know without being marred.
What a weight,
Has any parent managed it yet?
Yet I will strive for my new goal,
My kids will not be broken.
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