Bye, mama! Have a good day today!

clamber clamber clamber downthestairs 
look back up; she's still there.

Bye, baby! Drive safe, don't you drive fast cause you're running late now. Drive safe, I love you.

I love you, 
she speaks with her eyes. 
Drive safe,
she says with her lips.

I love you!
I say out loud; wave big and lovingly, 
send an air-blown kiss up the stairs back to her. I am a knight-errant princess leaving my queen mama in the castle. Dragons and briar bushes, here I come.

And she lets me go, into the world like she always does, 
feeling the pull of the universe drawing me out and away from her, as it always does.
She worries, but doesn't tell me so, 

except with her eyes
except with those eyes!

And it's these moments of admirable self-control that I feel her universeful of unmitigated love for an undeserving child. Slip out the door, clutching my heart, all overwhelmed with gratefulness and the chokey feelings creeping up the back of my throat cause my chest cavity is heaving itself in love-in-response and bewilderment again. I don't deserve all this. What love is this?!

The only true way to give my thanks is to leave the fortress, slay those dragons.
And learn to speak Love with my eyes, too --
Pass on the love overflow.