“I think parents sometimes forget that kids are putting on performances all day, just acting like the people we think we are until, like, ten years from now when we figure out who that actually is.”
–Jake Burt, Greetings from Witness Protection
Except that, as my teacher pointed out, no one really knows after ten years either.
Glimpses of My Daughter At Age Six
She is a sunflower-yellow
hourglass with a
center of nipple pink intensity
bouncing, twirling, burbling, squawking
like a Steller’s jay.
She is inside with Peter, Paul, and Mary,
multiplying three times infinity
in her rocking chair.
She is an apple, crisp and fresh,
the guitar singing melodies
sometimes jarring and jangling ears.
She’s a meandering stream of galaxies,
an ancient Redwood soul, not
fearing abandonment –
a kaleidoscope of wonder.
–Kathryn Harper