Adult Children by Pat Schneider
how they visit
from the far-off island nations
of their lives
How they bring us shiny notions
from the future we can’t possibly surmise
How the foreign languages they speak
surprise, delight and frighten us
until we remember how we pushed them
in the swing, how they shouted, laughing,
higher! Higher!
Today is my own adult child’s 43rd birthday. Where did the time go? And this week, he and his family are carving graceful letters in the snow in a foreign language I have never learned to speak. Happy Birthday Brendan! Higher! Higher!