When was it exactly
the boy became a man?
Was it at fourteen and
his first titillating kiss
with a girl he had met
at the movies?
Was it his first cigarette
given to him by a friend
at twelve years of age?
Was it the day his parents
divorced and he was left
all alone?
Was it that angry day in his
junior year of high school
he walked out the door
and never returned?
Was it that frightful day
he joined the Army
because he had no where
else to go?
Was it that day he closed
the front door behind him
and left home forever?
Was it his first love affair
and subsequent marriage
at eighteen?
When was it exactly
the boy turned into a man?
Was it his first child,
his first job at the factory,
his first car, his first home
in the suburbs, when he
grew his first beard and got
a promotion at work?
I suppose boys grow into
men incrementally at
different times or suddenly
like a bolt of lightning
out of the blue.
Yes, it was all of the above
and not any one of those.
It was the day with all
that behind him
the boy had his day
as he said to himself,
screw it, I can do this.
It was at that very moment
the man made up his mind,
right or wrong,
accepted responsibility
for his own life
and with the surety
of conviction
went his own way.
-30-
Chris Hanch 5-4-2022
No comments:
Post a Comment