The first time you Crayola color a cartoon sailboat
you will grasp purple crayon in fist and you will scribble,
you will dull the tips of brown, gray and orange down
draw a dust cloud, a circus tent, a universe,
you will break crayons and tear pages and
the first time you crayon color a cartoon sailboat
you will undoubtedly miss the point.

That is the point.

Child.
Live in your childhood.
Don't be so quick to trade it.
Adulthood is a neighborhood of sayers
who always talked about being doers.
Only thing they ever did was build significant distance
between everything they are and everything they could have been.

So,
do.
Be.

Dubious. Child.
Follow your eyes.
Wear your endangered grin like a scar- an unabashed promise
that you know where you've been and where you're headed.
Your bedroom floor IS an ocean.
Your bed IS a pirate ship.
Construct your blanket forts without proper building permits.
Refer to your blankets as dragon wings and mammoth skins.
Know the distinct species of each predator you've slayed
in order to protect your brother.
Let your brother into your kingdom.
Craft for him a crown.
Teach him how to conquer monsters and turn them into shadows.

Know that you are both surrounded, at all times
by people who want nothing more than to protect you.
Know that I'd build shields for you out of my own bones
if it made sense,
but know too, that it is in your best interest to get hurt sometimes,
learn from your wounds, wear them like your grin,
reinvent yourself.
Because the only mistake you will ever make will be trying not to make mistakes.
Try not to do that.

I have more to tell you later,
but please know as I already do,
you are perfect in the ways you were meant to be.

It took your parents and I a long time to find that in ourselves,
try to find it faster than we did.

04/14/2012

Author's Note: (a profound rough draft.)

Posted on 04/16/2012
Copyright © 2024 Frankie Sanchez