our granddaughter reaches
to touch the switch. Asking,
"Can I turn off the dark?"
Soon enough she will learn that "we" say,
"Can I turn on the light?"
Cute phrasing will drift and fade as she
is squeezed into social correctness.
Yet I choose to hold hope,
that there will remain within body and breath
an ever-kindling coal nudging her
to turn off the dark, wherever she goes.
Reading at SpeakEasy 19, Poems of Darkness and Light.
April 8, 2017, Mt. Baker Theater, Bellingham, WA.
I love that. And yes, we work the poetry out of children, then relearn it later in life. Too bad we can't just keep it.
ReplyDeleteVery nice!
ReplyDeleteIsn't that what we all pray for our children, Grand children. That they spend their lives turning off the dark and being The Light!
ReplyDelete