These are the first footfalls. Grand designs await in lingering dawns where your hands will shake with nerves and sweat will bead at your hairline, expectation and fear in equal measure feeding your freight-train pulse; rich emotion seizing your every resource. I hope the small victories prepare you, that when your heart swells or breaks, I’m still waiting for you at the base of the steps you work down, arms open and smiling, my words in your ears, “I love you. You are so good, so strong. I love you.” No sun knows the brilliance of you, and your life will illuminate countless others with the rays of your humor, creativity, and curiosity. Each day’s beginning awaits your spirit to give a sunrise beauty; each sunset awaits your tired resign to be pronounced final. And in between there’s so much courtesy, mindfulness, brash flight, stubborn desire, upside-down thrills and the pour of your generous way. #steps #stairs #sunrise #dawn #play #son #child #boy #cute #love #writer #writing #poetry #poem (at Small Victories)