This Child Of Mine Poem by Suzanne Hayasaki

I do not understand this child of mine,
Though I fed him at my breast
And nurtured him with nursery rhymes
And tales and songs and playful games.

I do not understand this young man
Whose life began as a single seed
That grew in my womb to bloom
Into this stranger looming over me.

I do not understand this willful mind
That speaks to me of what he wants
And what he plans to do with the life
That was, after all, my gift to him.

I do not understand this drive
To leave all that he has known
In search of something far from home
Where I cannot reach him to teach him
The lessons I feel he still has to learn.

I cannot understand how the boy
Who once held my hand so tightly
Now refuses to enter my embrace
And accept the place I have made for him
In the safety of the world I built just for him.

I cannot understand
But I can accept
Without anger or regret
And set my son free
In hopes that he will return to me
To share with me all that he has seen
On the path that he has forged
For himself.