Before You Leave Home

Today is the day I take my beautiful daughter off to college. I admit, my feelings about this event are mixed, and not altogether pleasantly.

Being an incredibly intelligent young lady, she skipped a grade when she was very young, and so she goes off fully a year younger than her contemporaries, which worries dad to the point of frazzle.

But she is also a cautious, carefully-minded girl, observant and slow to insert herself, waiting for the opportune moment in most things. Despite the dichotomy of the two households she was raised in, she is a remarkably well-balanced young lady.

I can only hope that she is safe, and happy in her new circumstance.

BEFORE YOU LEAVE HOME

The day before the last day
is often the hardest.
I walk the rooms
as I have countless times before,
awareness of what is to be
renders each footfall
a loving father's farewell kiss.

This was the spot where life quickened,
there the one where your smile
just reached out and killed me.
Over here is where we often sat
listening to the long
westward tale of the sun.
You live in these walls
as surely as
shadows live in fire.

New lives have come
from the answer
to old prayers,
so,

fare thee well
as you walk your own way.
The promises made
have come full circle.









©2014 Christopher Reilley
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