Suddenly,

you’re five.

It crept up on us

Like the lines we scratch

across the jamb of your door

Each time we suspect that in the night

You might have grown a little more

Remember when…? we sometimes say

Thinking back to the way we used to lift you up to the mouth of a flower,

to the crest of a wave

To the edge of a breeze

training your lips around the bend of a word

trailing our fingers on your soft baby knees

Remembering how safely you slept on our chest

Reminding ourselves we were trying our best

Thinking that we, so big and so strong,

Could teach you the world,

The right and the wrong.

And now it’s your finds that we’re tugged towards

A finger pointed at your own treasure stores

The songs you sing

The courage you bring

To this world we once knew that in truth is now yours

Inch by inch you quietly grow

Perhaps we should trace lines against the sky

Like the rungs of a rainbow

Or carve it into the bark of our backyard tree

Something to mark

How you fill the rooms of our hearts

With pride

with bewilderment

With love

And even a bit of melancholy

Because all these things that take years and years

Can come to be so

Suddenly.