Sixth grade: day one
They do not tell you how many times your heart breaks
as you watch your child grow up
The pain of leaving him in a classroom he does not know
after being in a different school for seven years
The look of fright, a shock in his eyes you cannot erase
for his mind or your own
When you leave your son alone with a group of
peers and strangers for the first time
Knowing he will not tell you about any of it
at the end of the day
That he cut a circle with scissors
or some bigger kid, and they’re all bigger than him now
poured milk down his back
The silence at days end of five years of schooling
five years of rides on the short bus
twelve years of life
is insignificant compared to the swirl of everything
that happens in his head from minute to minute
No one knows what is coming to us
we can's live in fear, put him in a bubble
but we have to hope
dammit, that’s all we have some mornings
when he’s up at 2AM telling the ceiling
the script to an episode of Dora the Explorer
all I can say, with more sleep deprivation
than sense
is vamanos.
