WATCHING CHILDREN: A Poem

They grow so fast say the old folks
As they watch the children doing childlike
Things like making their toys talk and imagining
Worlds without boundaries.
Children going on like it’s a forever
Time until they sit and watch.

But then it’s off to school and crowds of
Boys and girls pushed into brick and stone
Buildings constructed by big people who
Have forgotten those unbound worlds who
Want imagination directed into narrow halls and
Square rooms all the same.

It’s a hard job bringing all those children
Into line and meeting goals set by other
Big people who have forgotten the ways
Of real learning and imagination and who have
Forgotten how to reach and teach and truly
Inspire. But progress is its own reward they
Say and standards must be standardized
And circles must be filled properly or
You won’t count at all or worse you won’t be
Measured ‘til you fill that circle.

But there in your child’s mind you find new
Things to look at and see in new ways and there
Are no circles to fill or boxes in which to fit. Knowledge
Comes from stars and atoms and books not on
The list made up by big people who have
Forgotten. Toys teach ways of assembling and
Disassembling worlds and constructs of imagining
Sneak their way into the narrow halls and square rooms.

And brothers and sisters teach each other and
If kindness can be shared by parents and those few
Big people who remember the imagining and who
Aren’t pushed into narrow halls and square rooms
But live in the world and watch the children and
Understand the unbound worlds, then some children
Will grow slower but wiser with thinking minds and
Real ideas, not repeats of old shows so wrong and
Often rotten from the start.

So the old folks watch the children and know
That they grow so fast and wish that it wasn’t so.