Shedding Innocence

Today we moved the doll house,
and the tiny wooden furniture;
the little cloth dolls and clothes,
the wooden castle, its bridges,
wooden knights and horses
evicted to a kingdom in another land
no more crouched whispers and giggles.
In their place philosophical debate,
Scientific curiosities, and dreams of college.
A scab can be painful when the wearer picks;
only in loving does the act of  observing
pick the scab of loss that time inflicts
it is now the soothing harmonic melody
of my little one's maturing soprano
that escorts salty drops rolling down my cheeks.
How did we get to now so quickly?

                                            Ed Milligan