We Write the Future

When I was a single foster parent of four (crazy, I know), I did a lot of writing to get my thoughts sorted out on paper. Some of it made its way into poetry. The following was the result of mounting frustration at the courts seeming callousness towards the needs of two of the children I was caring for. I still wonder how they are doing...

We write the future they must know
Our decisions determine their destiny
And those we make in the here and now
Ripple on throughout eternity.

Our words carve the paths they must walk
As with our tongues we tell
How their lives will someday be
And they listen well.

Our hearts beat the rhythm of their lives
The pulse of their goals and dreams
Reverberates through time and echoes back
From countless childhood scenes.

Our hands hold the reigns of time -
The guardians of their years.
Fingerprints of days gone by
Touches of joy mixed with tears.

Their fragile hopes in our hands lie
As we rush from day to day.
Their tender wishes float wistfully by
As we sign their lives away.

With a flourish of pen we seal their fate,
As we write the future they must live.
Let us write the pages, then with utmost care
For while it is theirs to have, it is ours to give.

Margie Seely, 1997