Fragment
"Step carefully, and not much ahead",
I walk not close to the curb.
This fragment I remember
When I stray too far.
The words repeating: "Slow down".
And touch of guiding hand
On shoulders too brash to know for sure
When right to speak,
With whom to stand.
For what was done for me
Is what she, at pains, does still.
And yet still will extending forward
Beyond parental perpetual
'Til some time still distant
I stand alone, weakened without her,
Remembering this fragment.
Like discarded notebook entries
Now found, convey meaning.
Or crumbled papers from last fall
Pressed flat, reveal the cipher:
It's all for us, and that's it all.
