Big Boy Shoes

[edsiejka]

Big Boy Shoes

by Edmund Siejka

She was in the living room
Evening shadows slowly inching forward
When I came home
The look on her face said something had happened.
Reluctant to say anything at first
Words suddenly came out
From her like torrential rain
She came home early and since the house was quiet
Decided to clean up
Unable to find her sneakers she put mine on
Not noticing they weren’t mine
But belonged to our ten year old.

How did this happen so fast she asked?
She remembered the first time
They walked to school together
So close was he to her
How she held his small hand
Feeling his softness
Knowing his innocence.

When it was time for her to leave
She left him at the school house door.
Alone for the first time
He cried
Small innocent tears
Bright as diamonds
But like a brave soldier he walked in
As she waited in front
Anxiously holding her breath
Watching his every move
Until she could only see
The tiniest sliver of his blue backpack
Disappear behind those gray doors.

That fall she bought him his favorite sneakers
The ones covered with gold stars
That made him feel special
That made him believe
He could run like the wind.
And now he was so grown up
So tall
So big
And she confessed
She hadn’t been able to lift him
Since last summer.

When did this happen
To her little boy?
Changes that came so suddenly
And changes that made his mother so sad.

[mtmynd]

boy howdy! it happens so quick... where time goes??

our #1 approaches 48!!! NO!! can't be... where's the trickster?

age never ends until the end... "this is the end... the end, my friend" - he was only 28... so fast!

[saw]

it goes so quick, for sure......when you you look an the entirety....and there is a full range of emotions associated with this passage of time.....many of us have these recollections as we age...