A parent's monologue

My children ... would soon outgrow my arms and my embrace
Wandering into plains
Awaiting their footprints.
They grow
So do the expression of disparities
Grow between us.

He would soon be
twenty and still more
As he walks,
slams doors between us
Arguments spilling out into an ugly scene
... hormones...

teens, they say.
They grow,

and so do our concerns,
Their shackles,
They break free.

And yet my heart is tied

To a moment.

How so tiny was he
Wrapped in white.
When the nurse
Brought him to my arms
And those teeny wee little fingers,
Closed tightly into a fist.
The warm kiss I breathed onto his forehead,
Afraid I might hurt him,

Still afraid he might hurt himself
And my arms
Won't be there to hold
Him anymore.
Let him
Learn as he falls
For am afraid
I won't
Last his lifetime
To hold him.

Arguments or no arguments.