His Time Now

When my son studies
He goes into a kind of trance
Like he's in some sort of parallel universe
But I don't say anything
Because it works for him
He gets good grades

My mother used to say
Don't criticize the cow
As long as it gives you the milk
And that's what I believe too

That kid's had it rough
Let me tell you

I don't discuss my problems with strangers
But let's just say
He's not the best reader
And he's not good at math
And he sees things in a way
That other people don't
And I don't see anything wrong with that
But I admit that it doesn't make life easy for anybody

You know, for most of their lives
Your kids hand their achievements over to you
Because your their parent
And they don't know what to do with them
Accolades, awards

And then one day
They realize that they can hold their own medals
And trophies

And you realize
That you have to let them have their time

Because you had yours
And for a little bit
You had theirs
Whether you wanted it or not

That boy up there is having his time
And I'm happy for him

Don't get me wrong
I'm tempted to go up there
And tell him to take a break
To breathe
To shower
To be a kid
For five seconds more

But there's a bigger part of me saying--

He's doing something
He's got something going
Leave him alone

It's his time now

And my job now
Is to make sure
He knows it