Exactly the Same

At 5:30 am ,

when Katherine turned to walk away to

enter her corral

for the Chicago Marathon,

I got to time travel,

and she was once again walking away,

pony-tail swinging,

to some childhood milestone.

It may as well have been her  first day of school

for first grade.


My tears were

exactly the same.



It is like they were saved in some safe place

for just such a day.


Archived tears.


So I did what I always did.



I said,

“Katherine?”

And she turned,

as I took a teary-eyed, wobbly,

blurry, photo

of a

young,

adult

woman,

who knew exactly what she was doing,

and what it would take to do it.

***