It’s crazy how those early years

Carry so much.

They are “little humans”

Like us, but little.

Most of them have no bills to pay

Or mouths to feed

Or points to prove.

Little humans don’t respect our boundaries,

Nor care for our politics

And can disarm even the most guarded amongst us.

They are easy to forgive

And hard to stay angry at

Though they do not fail to drive us crazy.

Seeing ourselves in them

Is simultaneously exhilarating and terrifying,

They are more than the sum total of us

They are us

And they are also something completely different.

We raise them until we no longer can

And one day they will no longer be so little

But they will always be ours.

Our little humans.