"Reality is just like a giant onion

with infinite layers of peels

and you, my loves, can choose any that appeals!"

I emerged with this nugget

And laid it before my kids.

Excited, no time wasted, they chose theirs

Do away with school 'n ensnare

digitally-encrusted career-parents to 
a magical day at Wonderla!

So off we went

For they’d waited day and night

Checked heights and cried

To qualify for the dizzy drop zone

And the giant roller-coaster ride.

And they made it at last.

Jubilant, swooning at dizzy heights and

In and out of spinning teacups and majestic white elephants

Waving excitedly as we occasionally aligned

Under the scarlet sun.

Licking at our ice cream melts 

I misted. 

How easy it was

To mend broken promises 

Simple desires  

To fill tiny cups with happiness.

And yet, when they were out there 

Strapped in towering metallic seats 

I fretted about their choices 

For tiny fireflies they'd become

Hurtling about

in a giant fire-breathing dragon coaster

Its ups and its downs

The sheer largeness of the world around

Flashing before me like a movie reel

I watched in a trance

They rode and rode

Into lights and shadows

And realms unseen

When the roller-coaster made its final turn

And disappeared somewhere into the horizon

Dreamlike crowds kept streaming toward me

And suddenly I'm ambushed again

By two little faces giddy-ed with happiness:

"Can we try this ride again??" they clamor. 

And it brings to me familiar relief.

I know then that they’ll be okay.

This life. All theirs to ride.

This childhood. Their precious possession.