TO WALK ALONE

 All I wanted was this for you:

That you could tie or buckle your shoe.

At night when the stars blinked loftily down

At us and the lights in our little town,

You read to me, I read to you

Of the Little Red Hen and Little Boy Blue,

And all I wanted was that you should need

To feel this urgency to read.

And all I wanted when the noon sun shone

Was that you could walk to school alone.

Sometimes the wind tossed leaves in our path;

You would leave my side and chase them and laugh;

I watched how the breeze tossed your red-gold curls

As you dropped my apron to run with the girls;

All that I wanted was that you should decide

The turn of your sails with the outgoing tide.

All that I wanted too soon is here;

You need me no longer, but, oh, my dear--

Childhood, schooldays--now that you're grown,

How can I learn to walk alone?