Growing Pains

You come through the door confident,

Uncertain, laughing, worried, quietly

And with a great declaration

I smile at all of you

Hoping to know you

Hoping to punch through

The veil of strangerness,

Climb over the wall of small

Words and conversations

I am standing now,

But I remember sitting

Where you are

You do not yet know

How quickly it will

All happen, how quickly

You will be where I am.

Hopefully. In some other room,

In some other city, state, country.

I speak and you speak,

All in small words and

Conversations.

Words are why you are here,

Why I am here

To make your words grow.

Even if you want to keep

Your words small,

I will peel back the shade

I will water and feed

And shine sunlight

And like the reaching trees

So will your words grow.

Slowly, almost unnoticeably

But also, certainly.

You leave like a wave

Crashing against rock and shore.

A few sweet notes bid farewell

My feet hurt

My eyes and mind

Sink gently toward sleep.

Your growing pains

And mine. And

We will press upward again tomorrow.