Our Little Secret

parents should treat their kids like

harmless asteroids in a solar system of orbiting adults.

they should never mention the truth about the ruby slippers,

though they can’t stop from exclaiming how they sparkle on their bitty feet.

and grandkids…oy. a wee one who grasped the extent of his power was recently turned away from a manhattan eatery and threw a temper tantrum that leveled midtown.

i offer this as cautionary tale.

progenies are safest as cutie pies, cossetted, not small godzillas with even smaller yous locked in their fists. what does that even mean, to die a thousand times over? better nuzzles and nonsense that delights, distracts. that way, no one knows that you already melted.