I wrote this many years ago when I was running strategic planning sessions for disability agencies.

Yesterday, before we planned the future,

I watched you scan the room

and discreetly re-arrange it

to make his entry as smooth as your own.

 

As the room talked,

you led the listening to him

and planted your thoughts on the borders

of his lifetime garden.

 

At some signal I did not see,

the two of you left and then returned in style,

either having been to the toilet

or to visit the Queen.

 

At lunch, you invited me to sit with you

and share his jokes

and learn that food can be thereabouts

and still sustain.

 

That night, I recited my mantra,

‘To plan is to cease to be a victim’,

but as I lay there sleepless in the dark

I heard myself whistling.

 

In the morning, I arrived before everyone else

so I could clear his pathway

and laughed as he rolled in, without you,

waving his homework like a flag of independence.