Second Birthday

For his second birthday we made a tower

on the living room floor, for him to knock over.

My sister, my mum and I, working together,

assembled the building from colourful blocks.

In the morning – the idea went – he would

be brought downstairs, would see the structure

and would rush ahead to push it down.

There he is now, two years old, gleefully shoving

over our wooden tower in the living room

on the morning of his second birthday,

the family all cheering, singing, congratulating.

What could we have known back then

of the towers he would knock down since?

And how could we have comprehended that

no cement would make the slightest difference?

Joshua Seigal 

(published in The Relationship Expert)