Sentimental Moment or Why Did the Baguette Cross the Road? by Robert Hershon
Don’t fill up on bread
I say absent-mindedly
The servings here are huge
My son, whose hair may be receding a bit, says
Did you really just say that to me?
What he doesn’t know
is that when we’re walking
together, when we get
to the curb
I sometimes start to reach
for his hand
Oh, how I relate to this poem! It doesn’t matter how old my kids get, the reflex to parent them always remains. The reality they’ve grown up and don’t need me telling them to “look both ways” before crossing the street is hard to grasp.
Hershon describes this sentiment in a great poem with very few words. I can perfectly imagine being somewhere like Willow Street and reminding my kids (okay, my adult children) to go easy filling up on the bread but I would never in a million years impose my opinion on my friends. What’s up with that? And, I’ve also had those moments where I forget that my kids no longer need curb assistance. Love this poem!
