Whose weekend is it?

you had them last weekend

this weekend they're mine

you have them until 6pm

then they are mine again

we maneuver them like chess pawns

trying to get the advantage

we have attorneys

we have decrees

what we don't have is their custody

so one weekend they're here

the next they're there

we are part-time parents

shuffling the kids around

in the game of life

one day we will wake up

and realize they are not kids anymore

and the time we had with them

was too brief to be of consequence

we will never have them home again

custody doesn't matter then

they don't need us anymore.