Stranger

Standing before me
was a dreaded sight
though this stranger and me
must have passed in the night
Though I didn't know him
his face I recognized
my child was before me
now a man quite dignified

He hadn't become
just who I thought he'd be
as he lied in the grass
when he was two or three
the hand that held mine long ago
and one day turned to slap my cheek
the lips that spoke "I love you"
then turned to billow cursed speach
now I could barely recognize
in the man before me
fear came plunging through my veins
as I watched him leaving slowly
as he walked out my door
a man now, without doubt
I felt my heart tear straight in two
my child was walking out

Every step of this strangers walk
my heart had thundered through the storm
while he ran quick ahead of me
yet he never walked alone
I tried my best to lead him
through life with a guided hand
but could that hand be a controling fist
my soothing voice a demand?
I see without my child
I'm not sure who I am anymore
I try to loosen my grip and free him
but I find it quite a chore

As he steps into the "real world
without a concept of what "adult" means
he sometimes struggles through the process
he walks alone it seems
the boundaries I've placed around him
seem like reigns that hold him back
so I pull him back a little
just enough to cut the slack
so he runs free, a fine man
with new boundaries to set