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.