To Hannah on her 14th birthday

Stephen Pate, Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada, May 18 2009

So you are fourteen

So you’ve turned fourteen
Our teenage beauty queen
All life you have never seen
Places you have never been
Things only in your dreams

Take it easy go slow
Watch the every changing show
There’ll be time before you know
Birthdays speed by in a row
There is no more time to grow

Do your hair in a curl
Take life in a whirl
Dance circles in a twirl
Let your magic life unfurl
You’re just our little girl

Fathers write some plead
Young girls pay no heed
Their adventures at full speed
Emotions to music keyed
Let us not their way impede