A LESSON ON BUBBLES

Bubbles burst when you catch them,
Much like your wildest dreams:
The blowing is good while it lasts;
Soon the suds run dry, the bubbles fly
From your grasp; elusive illusions
Remain like tombstones. You were
Here once, but just that once
Until bubbles fill the rooms again,
Fly, and burst while catching them,
Much like your fondest dreams.
Catching bubbles, bursting bubbles,
Popping bubbles while you can;
It is a game grown old in our hands,
We tire of it and let the suds run dry.

-- A. B. Casuga, 2009


These thoughts frighten us while we play with them, our little loved ones -- we should have, would have spelled them out for Diana and Daniel before they became teenagers. Will Matthew, Taylor, and Megan understand growing past their tenth? Sydney and Michael Albert will see through grandpa's aversion to the game. But will Chloe and Louis, crazy about bubbles still, believe the old man on the rocking chair that "bubbles fly with the good fairies, we should never burst them"?


This business of raising grandfathers must be tricky business. They will learn that soon. That will burst my bubble.