our granddaughters

older sister as translator

when my 6 year old and 3 year old granddaughters
come to mind,
I find it hard to really think,
since they come first to my heart
and I feel so strongly,
they center my world
and they ground me with the power in their selves,

each has a sureness in the knowing of what to want,
a confidence that there is a path moment to moment,
upon which each should walk,

the older can adjust more easily to thwarting pressures
for her foundation is older and surer
and also allows her access to higher levels
where the abstract of others and herself,
of other realities and her realities,
can meet and parley,

the younger, when thwarted, feels foundations threatened
as if her choice denied shakes the universe,
and she despairs over what to an adult can seem minor,
we have forgotten what it is to be three,
in her primal concreteness she cannot on her own
yet rise above and beyond the moment,

the 6 year old can remember being 3,
and she can touch the higher levels, too,
so when no one else
can console and distract her sister from despair,
she can,









she is a translator, with feet in both worlds,
who can bridge the gulf between,

at best an educator is such a translator,
what the world needs now are bridges
for truth has many parents and places
who need to find each other.













by Henry Walker
August 4, ’11