It’s just like they warned
the unexpected lurch
the leap from here to there
just when here
was making sense
the two-year-old wakes up
and quietly plays
on her own
for an hour
which she’s never done
putting her stuffed animals
to bed and I can hear
her kissing them
and when I finally get up
I see that she has placed
one on each stair
each one carefully tucked
under a wet wipe
and I notice
the five-year-old
has two loose teeth
and when I look inside
his mouth I see
the adult ones
poking up behind
surprising
serrated
like a shark
I finish my bowl of cereal
and pretend that all this
is normal
when of course
it is not
because the world spun faster
last night
even though no one else
seems to have noticed
so yes
it’s just like they warned
you’ll have been watching the leaves
blow in the wind
when suddenly you look up
and realize
they aren’t saplings anymore
but two soaring trees.