A Child’s Play

I watch you play upon the stairs,

Lost in your childhood games,

Built by your imagination,

With freedom and no restraint.

Today you are a sailor,

The captain of your ship,

Sailing on the ocean sea,

Procuring a long summer trip.

You sing a song

That you have loved,

Words of an old lullaby,

You sing a song on the stairs today,

Singing loud—you’re not shy.

The stairs are now a jungle,

A land that you explore,

With a monkey and a zebra,

A tiger and a vicious wild boar.

You pretend you’re on a skyscraper

High up in the sky,

Playing like you’re really there,

And wishing you could fly.

Once again, you’re hungry,

Therefore, you stop and eat your lunch,

You’ll be a chef in your own shop,

There’s not much time to stop.

The stairs are now a cherry tree

In your own loved backyard,

With grass and flowers, and bumble bees,

Except in this tree, you cannot scrape your knees.

The stairs yet again, a mountain top

Reaching high into the sky,

But all too soon, it’s evening time

And now, no more time to climb.

(painting by: Kathleen Stevens)