the dreams of a child

Maybe I shouldn't have said it. 
I don't know this road so well.

Leaning down to my child,
whispering in her ear over the noise of the crowd, 
"That could be you one day, if it is what you want."

She smiled even larger than she had been. 

She whispered back, "I know mom, I know."
Her eyes behind her thick glasses brimming with tears.

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is brave five minutes longer.

~Ralph Waldo Emerson~