Sunday, April 22, 2007

Bedtime Story

As I reach chapter's end
evening has claimed you.
Lids heavy,
Your dreams rush in to drown
your mind in visions:
Pooh Bear,
Thomas the Tank Engine.
Touchstones of childhood
connecting one generation
with the next.

How carefully we wrap their little minds
in nests of soft fictions.
Cushion their realities
against the world's rough edges.
Find threads of narrative
for their trusting souls to
play with.

Ancient Egypt
Shan China
the world of the Maya
every place, every time
told stories to its children
and when armies fled
and stone crumbled
only stories remained
written in the wistful
sighs of parents
at bedtime.

Who knows what we pass on?
Each generation gives
Each generation takes
but what is given is not what is taken.
All that is passed
is that moment
at the end of the last line
when words end
and dreams begin.