Tenderheart

zipped into your fuzzy Care Bear suit
(the only item on your Santa’s list that year)
or caped in handmade Batman glory
you wore hero like a second skin—
my nimble boy, all sinew and spark,
striking ninja poses
hands slicing through the shadows
of your imagined battles

I played the sidekick,
you the conquering lead,
bravado masking the trembling core
of your tender heart

but boyhood burns fast
and as you grew
you strained against restraint
your will an unrelenting tide
beautiful man-child
muscles taut with conviction
you resisted well-worn paths—
the ones I knew and trusted—
clearing your own way
through bramble and thorn
teaching me to peer past
the edges of familiar boundaries

the boy I loved so fiercely
(and sometimes feared for)
has now become the man
whose stride is steady.
you don, again, that threadbare
cape—now sidekick
to your own small warriors—
then, playroom scuffles spent,
you trade it in for scrubs,
vestments stitched for different battles,
and shift into your other self:
mender of bones and flesh
hands fluent in the language of repair
the able and stable real-life hero
of your own corporeal world
anchored in the weight of what endures