Walls
Tell me how we should learn
and grow from mistakes
when all you show us are
Your rules.
Your walls.

That’s not “tough love.”
That’s not even love.
It’s what you want.
Not what we need.
_____________________________________________________________
Let me tell you.
You can always build more walls
and shield us from everything that’s not you.
But one day, we will outgrow them.
And when we do,
we will show you that we are birds.
It does not matter how long we have been kept.
It does not matter how strong your gravity is.
We were always meant to fly.

The world is full of storms,
but let us fly anyway.
No matter the wreckage,
we will spread our wings.
And sometimes, they will knock us down.
But nothing hurts more than our fragile bones
against your walls,
aching to be freed.

I hope you realize this.
And I hope you realize it soon.
Because when it is too late,
You will break down the walls that you’ve built between us,
and you will see someone that you did not raise.
They will spread their wings
And fly far away from all the brick that you’ve showed them.
When it is too late,
You’ll finally remove the cataracts from your eyes
and see that you’ve lost us years ago
while you were blinded by your own love.
By the way you held on.
The first rule of parenting is to let.
Let them be wrong.
And let them make mistakes
before they let go of you.
_____________________________________________________________
The minute your child was born,
you proudly call yourselves mothers,
Fathers.

And spend your child’s youth not knowing
how to be a parent.