Childhood’s End – an elegy
It was gray and windy,
that day at the beach.
We weren’t there to go swimming,
just to walk, and listen
to the crash of the waves
and the roar of the wind.
Then a flash of color:
blue, yellow and red,
of a beach ball as it flies
past me, over my head.
I chased after it,
but the wind made it faster,
and it crashed into the cold
ocean, where it landed
out of my reach.
I stopped and looked at the waves,
swelling large, then crashing
to the shore as the ball
floated away.
It was at that moment
that I realized the precipice
that I stood.
I could chase after the ball,
wade out into the waves
and swim to the colored orb,
or I could let it go.
Chase my childhood,
or let it go and grow up?
What choice should I make?
And as the sun set behind
the orb of the ball,
I turned and walked back
to my family.
No longer a child, yet
not quite an adult.
I grew up that day.
