Poem: On Reaching Your Majority

Today is my daughter Arianna's eighteenth birthday. I wanted to give her something that would last longer than a day or even a year or two, so I wrote her a poem. I call it "On Reaching Your Majority." 

On Reaching Your Majority

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a [wo]man, I put away childish things. (I Cor 13:11)

One day passes and by the power of the law

You cross from childhood into the adult realm.

Soon enough you will leave this place, like a
Fledgling bird eager to try your wings
Confident you can soar, ignorant of the feathered anxiety
Beating in your parents’ hearts as they watch you
Stand on the precipice wings outspread
Grateful you didn’t jump too soon at some strange creature’s
Rude intrusion—there are wolves out there, remember.
It is time for you to put away the squawking gaping maw
And find your own worms; but better still, save
The best of childhood inside you, scrapped knees and band aids,
Rainy days and puddles, rainbows and climbing trees,
And frogs and squirrels and every living thing
Seen through eyes of wonder and reserved against the day
You watch your own fledglings spread their wings and fly away.

~

 

 



Happy Birthday, Pie!