“I dream of structure. Maybe someday, when the first six have graduated ...”
Structure? You mean like a high dive platform?
You teach the kid about it...
As you climb with them...
One rung at a time...
A, B, C, 1, 2, 3...
Add, subtract, multiply, divide...
From the Fertile Crescent, to Rome, to Reformation...
To Revolution, to Reconstruction, to Revelation...
To orbit, to the Moon, to the outer planets...
To infinity and beyond...
From the nursery to the ballfield to the DMV...
Tell them how you did it “back in the day”...
Tell them how it felt...
What worked, what almost worked, what totally didn’t work...
The view from the ledge...
The Moment Of Truth...
At last they step out onto the platform...
You walk them to the edge...
And...and...and...
Weeelll, to be quite honest, ya can’t just leave ‘em out there with the breeze whistling through their heads...
They either leap on their own, or you shock the crap out of them with a solid boot in the butt.
That is, if you want them to make a splash...
Our S1 talks long, has heap big plans to go “SPLASH!”
And...
I’m rummaging in the closet for my boots....
I like to point out that Anoreth made a giant leap as soon as she turned 18, and now she has an independent life with her own apartment, dog, car, the whole shebang. I don’t tell her what to wear, what to eat, when to get up in the morning, to, Turn that off: we’re paying for the electricity!” ... nuttin’.
However, none of the younger siblings had yet decided it’s worth it.
These days, that counts as poetry; and pretty good poetry at that. It's better than some self-styled "poets laureate" I've seen.