Liberation Day

School starts tomorrow
Parents (including the two in my house) will rejoice
In sounds echoing but reversing the day of birth
When parents say, to the newborn, "welcome, welcome"
And now parents say, to the school child, "go, go, go, go"
Together.

Take your backpack
Filled with protractors and glue sticks,
Pencil boxes and erasers,
Packed with delicacies of bologna and apples
(and Cheetos and Corn Nuts while your parents were not looking).
Take these and all other tools of learning,
and burdened by this pack on your back depart the Egypt of your parents' homes.
A childhood Exodus to the promised land.
En masse.

From morning to mid-afternoon
Mothers and fathers now praise the teacher and the school.
"Watch over my child," they ask.
"For their daytime is yours, and not mine, for 9 months"
No sibling squabbles or summer camps,
For the Autumnal Equinox is almost upon us (Sept 22).
And parents will celebrate the new day's quiet with wine and song.
Working.
Alone.