Higher Learning

...Enlightment long-coming...

When on a pilgrimage of late,

To plant my son in Halls of Higher Learning,

A distant, yet distinct, rekindled yearning

Smote me hard.  The fickle hand of Fate

Inured me to its breast, then harshly shunned

My fervent and sincerest supplication.

To whit:  Pray, grant my soul its earned salvation

And bear it back far from this Edge of Night.

Before these brittle limbs and carriage creaked;

Before this mind turned inwardly in fright,

Assailed by broken promises and dreams.

 

As kindred spirits whispered by

(Unknownst to me, yet kindred, nonetheless),

With twinkling gait, high hopes, and sparkling eye,

I joined, invisibly, in step and dress,

A wave of eager youth as it drew nigh.

Could they, in me, the Breath of Life infuse

Or lift my heart from its bewildered path?

I bathed within the swirling aftermath,

Alas, but sank abandoned and refused.

They did not see me waffle in their wake,

So flat of foot and sharply out of tune.

 

Yet, as my silly whimsy turned to rust,

Amidst the seething throng, my son I spied.

So moved by his true happiness and trust,

I wildly grinned, near bursting from my pride.

I knew my destiny would ne’er be his,

And his would shine, thereafter, in the stars.

The simple truth, and what I learned from this,

Is to live content in whom and what we are.

 

Reviews

[Cherrie Palmer]

The passing of the baton and endless ways they reinvent tomorrow.