Scar or Blemish

It was a chilly winter afternoon
for a little boy run around,
but we both had enough indoors,
so his dad overdressed him,
and the little one took off,
racing down the sidewalk,
with his bouncing stride,
just as he had, summer and fall;
the mittens didn’t last long,
and he opened his coat,
the adventure would be brief;
soon, he sat on the sidewalk,
to be carried home, but once there,
squirmed for release,
raced up and down the yard,
went behind some bushes, and fell;

I got to him as the blood
started gushing, a wound from a branch,
above his eye, a moment of horror;
he was abundantly attended,
the bleeding stopped, a Band-Aid applied,
and he was again ready to go outside,
but it was nap time;
after the dead, low-lying branches
were removed, it was possible
to resume life, for the moment,
better aware of what is sturdy,
and enduring, and what is fragile,
and needs care.