SAPPY

The tree we planted
at my boy’s birth
still grows
upward
outward
increasing its influence
and health
while my boy
long ago
stopped.

His plateau was so long ago
while that tree
continues to climb.
And the tree is lovely
and I’m glad we lay that seed
and I’m proud that something
I’d brought into the world
had attained such heights
but
I just wish
it had been my son
and that he’d become anything
other than a gym teacher.