Contributor Series 11: On Birthdays
On Your Twelfth Birthday
By Laura Zucca-Scott
It’s your twelfth birthday
I see the lines on your face
And try to imagine the man you will be
I celebrate and fear
The many tomorrows
And tangled futures
I don’t want to see you give up
Thinking it is not possible
I wish I could tell you how it can be
So many odds stacked against you
So many people who already let you down
Hoping I won’t be one of them
Praying I will have the wisdom
Even from far away
To help you fly higher
Then I see you smile
You hang on to your new toy
And I think we still have time
Before your innocence fades
Before we face all the impossibilities
Laura Zucca Scott’s most recent poem to appear here was Brave Smiles (April 2012).
Yes, let them have their youth. Life is different when our children take on the responsibilitites of adulthood. Nice poem.