Life After This

Location

Those same brown eyes

Set into a slimmer face,

One set with the puzzle of acne,

And new bangs that are swept to the left.

 

She is older now, by ten years to be exact.

No longer a rampaging third grader,

Worrying about coal in a stocking.

You cannot lie to her anymore.

 

She slides her glasses up her nose as she sits

By the window of the library

And you see your baby girl in the reflection.

Her textbooks lay across her lap like a comforting blanket.

 

No longer is she the small child needing

Her mother to protect her,

To embellish the pride of her country,

Her school,

Her family,

Herself.

 

In a few months she will walk down the aisle

In that royal purple gown with a scroll

Commemorating the completion of childhood,

The entrance into adulthood.

 

She knows the truth behind Santa,

Behind the tooth fairy, the Easter bunny,

Jack Frost, and where babies come from.

So why do you lie?

 

Why do you keep her hidden? This girl,

Who you do not let make friends with the

Exchange student from Russia

Or the eccentric boy who doesn't go to church?

 

You teach your history classes the great

And the glory of our country

But what about theirs? The kid from

India who sits in the back corner?

The Korean girl  with the braid in the second row?

 

Your daughter sits in your class in the front

Between two students from England.

And you see those same brown eyes from ten years ago.

 

But now they are full of knowledge

And no longer need to be sheltered from the world.

Tell her about the good and bad things about Korea.

Let her befriend the Russian exchange student,

And let his culture

Diversify hers.

 

She is no longer the rampaging third grader

But a young adult and in a few months

Out on her own.

So why keep pretending she's still so naïve?

 

Treat her like the woman she is.

Prepare her for the world after you

Prepare her life after this.

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