When I was somewhat more than four
and pressed my face into my mother’s soft neck,
turning all four year old problems over to her
I didn’t know it would be the last time
I would ever feel really safe.
I guess I expected more.
Life has awarded me small blessings
and that was one of them.
In magnitude they are not likely to increase;
and most often I don’t even recognize
they will one day cease.
I think life will go on as it always has before.
There have been many such blessings,
many such last times since
and yet I recognize the finitude of them
ever, only in the past tense.
Sadly, I am that way most often with people
never realizing the miracle of them
until for the last time....