When I was pregnant, 
I read that if I told you
Don’t climb that or 
don’t jump there 
because you’ll fall,
then you would only hear fall 
and subsequently fall.
I never said it,
never telegraphed that message, 
and you grew up fearless, 
living on the kitchen counter,
bouncing from coffee table to couch to chair.
So, when I warn you now
delete any digital period tracker you keep,
I do not mean it as an act of surrender
but of girding yourself,
my fearless one,
for what is to come.