Space Exploration

At kindergarten orientation
After the striking teachers had abandoned their picket line
After the kindergarten teacher had finished telling us parents
All about what we could and should be doing
To make her life easier
Without having said more than a word or two
To the students themselves
And after we had taken the tour
Led by a first grader
Who was cute beyond words
Or cute before words
Talking softly as she walked ahead of us
Her back to us
After all of that
My oldest daughter
The five year old
The kindergartner to be
Rode a bus
All by herself
For the very first time
It was meant to be a practice run
For the kids who will be taking the bus in the fall
My daughter’s a walker
So I don’t know what it was for her
But she waved
She waved a lot
She waved as the bus sat still
As the bus drive out of sight
As the bus drove into sight
And as she disembarked
Then she gave me a big hug
I don’t know what it was for me either
Beyond a parental milestone
I thought I wouldn’t have
Come to life
An opportunity to calmly and in passing
Remark upon the passage of time
While at the same time watch my two year old son
Run around me in ever widening circles
I don’t really know what to make of any of it
But I know that thinking about that bus ride now
Makes me think about the planets
Revolving around the sun
And the stars
And meteors
And asteroids
And how from earth
It all seems so much simpler
So much more mysterious
So much more beautiful
From a distance