My Grown Up Girl

Jesse Doiron

March 1, 2026

The summer swings away from me.

Her hands hold tightly on.

I promise, then, to not let go.

She laughs out loud delight.

While gyring round, around, and round,

we wander through the grass

in backward flights of figure eights,

with winter now long gone.

Jesse Doiron has worked in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia as an educator and consultant. His teaching experience ranges from English for international business at the UC – Berkeley Extension in San Francisco to creative writing at the Mark Stiles Maximum Security Prison for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice.