Walking in his office yesterday,
I saw three strange looking lamps.
He explained they were his daughter’s.
When he cleaned her room, he

took them all away.

I looked at him confused, and asked

Why he did such a thing   He said I had

To, she started college yesterday.

He kept the lamps on his desk to remind

Him of his little girl, the youngest of his

Four children, the light of his world

I said nothing but it was hard to believe

The last time we had talked about her,

She was only thirteen!

I looked at the man I had known so long
his brown hair turned to gray.  We had

That and much more in common. 
How did we get this way?

It was a hard thing to swallow and harder

To believe, a young man and woman, both
in their prime, but spring turned to summer
in the blink of an eye.

Time is hard to understand, and something
we want to deny.  But mirrors, calendars

And growing children, simply do not lie.