Saturday, October 4, 2014

TO MY SONS


I found this in some of my old writings. I seem to remember writing it after watching one of my boys, when they were little, playing in the yard. But it was many years ago.
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TO MY SONS

This morning I saw you at play.
You did not notice me, my little one,
But as the sun peeked over the trees today,
I peeked up from my work to watch you, my son.

I saw you run, hiding behind every tree.
No doubt you followed some imagined foe.
Our perhaps you were the one who had to flee,
And that is why you ran so fast and hid so low.

But that game quickly changed to another
As you spied something moving in the grass.
Down on your hands and knees in the clover
To watch a spider, or an ant go scurrying past.

That’s when your kitten came to join the fun.
She came sneaking, like a lion on the prowl.
And just as your insect watching was done,
She leaped upon you with a fierce-some, kitty growl.

You gave a scream, not of hurt but one of delight.
And the cat’s growl turned quickly into a purr.
That game too came to an end, not with a fight,
But with your little hand stroking your kitten’s fur.

And so I left you alone with all your dreams,
You and your cat in the shade of the tree.
The world needs freedom, but as I watch you it seems
That none know liberty like a child who is free.
 
As we grow, we put aside some childish things,
We begin to do the things of a man.
But in every autumn is a little spring;
In every aged step, memories of how they ran.

There comes no sadness with the growing years -
It’s more like watching a face spread into a smile.
But one learns to use more wisely his tears,
And to remember that within still lives the child.