Day 27-Leaving Home

The sun began to bend

as he closed the door; outside

he listened for the sounds of home

that his heart held close and tight.

From womb to birth to now

his parents shared his life;

without a pause, the time had come

for this child to take his leave.

His footsteps followed the narrow path;

he did not linger, nor gaze behind.

Shadows filled the evening

as the day gave way to time.

Winter 1983

I wrote this poem as a brand new mom, and already dreaded when my child would leave home.  Though my first child is a girl, I wrote the poem about a boy to make it universal and not just about my life.  Today my husband and I flew to Seattle, then rented a car to drive to Surrey, BC to visit our second son.  Our son left home not as I imagined when I wrote this poem so many years before, but to get help for a drug addiction.  He has been attending the John Volken Academy for a year.  As we hugged him close and tight, we felt his happiness as his footsteps walk forward on a better path.  We are grateful for the tender mercies blessing his life as he courageously desires to change himself with the help of this wonderful program and the people involved in it.