Porcelain Girl

Everyone knows a girl such as this
Held close by some, loved by even more.
There is a different kind though,
For every tale and lore.

This girl of which I speak
Is a very fragile sort.
She laughs, she plays, prays to God above
And rides horses for a sport.

This girl, you see, is breakable
And a very fragile kind
Though she wishes to run, like other girls
And to that no one is blind.

She grew in a protected realm,
Close to her mother's care.
While this itself is not bad
It's what's underlying there.

This fragile girl is of porcelain make
Her kind hardly made any more.

When she strays too far from parental sight she's fetched back and hugged close
Though this cracks her fragile structure

Soon enough if this pattern is followed
An obvious ending is in sight
When drawn back in that one last time
She gets hugged with all the hugger's might.

She splinters and cracks,
Seemingly broken beyond repair
When this happens the hugger stops
Extremely scared and full of despair.

So these people who love her
At once gather to her aid
And pick her up, piece by piece
And try to put her together as she once was made.

They try to keep her unaltered,
Though there's going to be obvious change
That bit of glue, placed with tender care
But not a hair rearranged.

What's changed cannot be noticed
By our earthly measurement
But let me tell you here and now
Letting go is not a detriment.

So parents, friends, family all
Let me leave you with these words
Don't hold your child forever close, they'll love you just the same
Rather let them explore and decide on their own time
And fly up with the birds.