Fractions

You divide your time
Into little slots
Events and thoughts
Intermingling plots

A child full of confusion
Of uncertain striving
Certainly trying

Older years,
The moment you leave
Your mother's hand
And the tears flow
Free and forever
The hurt, a sulk and sniffing tears

Until you see
That life is yours
Yours alone
Yours to do with what you will
This might take years
Or never happen at all
This terrifying flower
Of responsibility and freedom

Cut short
When another comes
In its turn,
Whether you are ready or not
To give up what you've got
To take your freedom
That giddy awful life
Which was only yours
Now is not

That's truly the end
And a kind of beginning,
Of the end.
Either way
It ruins you