Children Grow Up-and Change-Another Goodbye

Today, I watched you roll the hula hoop all across the park, whooping at your prowess. It was going and going, like the years behind you, away and around and away! We used to stand ten feet apart and I would say, Put your hands out, Ready? then I’d pitch the ball.

Now, you throw the football, spiraling straight to the target, me, a real football that demands I wear my garden gloves. You catch it every time,

without me asking, Ready? You still tell me what’s going on with friends and enemies. You say, What do you think, Grandma?

I think the years behind you, every one leave me joy-filled, seeing the pictures in my mind of times we’ve spent together. There was Candyland and Old Maid, on to Ruckus and Trash, now long games of Monopoly where I still try not to win every time.

I’ve already won, because I have you.