CHILDREN ARE LIKE KITES

You spend years trying to get them off the ground.

You run with them until you're both breathless.

They crash.

They hit the rooftop.

You patch comfort, and sure that someday they would fly

Finally they are airborne...

They need more string and you keep letting it out.

They talk and the each twist of the twine¹

there is a sadness that goes with joy.

The kite becomes more distant,

and you know it won't be long

before that beautiful creature will snap the lifeline that binds² you two together

and will soar as it is meant to soar, free and alone.

Only then do you know that you did your job. "