Title: 20/20
Category: Poetry (life, perception)
Date: 9/15/03


20/20

Do you look at the rain
and wonder why it is wet?
Perhaps when you were young,
but no longer.
Do you look at the grass
and wonder why it is green?
Perhaps before you learned about it,
but no longer.
Do you look at a cat
and wonder why it is fluffy?
Perhaps when you were a small child,
but no longer.
Do you look at a person
and wonder why they are the way they are?
Perhaps not when you were young,
but now it is so.
The innocence of a child does not judge.
And we cannot keep that.
Because the innocence of a child does not reason.
It does not think things through.
The innocence of a child sees the world through rose-colored glasses.
We cannot keep that.
Do you look at the rain
and scowl because it is raining?
Perhaps not now,
but maybe someday.
Do you look at the grass
and snap that it needs mowing?
Perhaps not now,
but maybe when you’re older.
Do you look at a cat
and bark that it’s owner ought to keep it inside?
Perhaps not now,
but maybe in but a few years.
As time goes by
too often we don new glasses
that block out joy.
Because life can be hard
and people become jaded.
We don’t have to be that way.
Even the blind can have perfect vision.
The world is not pink,
but neither is it grey
if you don’t want it to be.