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.