Prodigy

Y Who knew we’d forget the sound of a schoolbell ring before the day was even done.

G And my elementary school classmates stopped yelling No pictures! at parents and strangers

I I woke up today and learned I’m no longer the leading expert on my mother’s smile

D Like a sapling redwood mocked by the stars, I grow an inch and feel two smaller.

O A spilled year asks the next, “Are we all grown up yet?” like an onion in a field of daisies

R Collected seasons like a too-small pail gathering the fallen droplets of a too-big sky.

P I grew up accidentally and all at once for twenty years with a few pockets of loose days,

To be read from the bottom up