Kids say the Strangest Stuff

By Patricia Harris

Why do we grow out
Of saying the most fun
Things that can come to mind?

Hurry up and save the toothbrush,
Avoid the trip to the planet
Made of stench and stinky feet…
Be made of turtles if you need to.
Why did you stop talking to
The monsters in the closet anyway?

Kids understand the world,
The wonders that keep it alive…
So though they say some of
The strangest things,
I think the kids see more than
Anyone else does in a lifetime.

*Poet’s note. This is absolutely inspired by my friend Jenny’s Dante. She messaged me three things that he said and it reminded me of the moments when my kids were little…and I realized that kids have a magic that we tend to forget by the time adulthood comes.

Building Walls

By Patricia Harris

Everyone is so busy building walls
that we forget the reasons why
we try to hide within.

Keeping your heart from feeling,
keeping it from breaking,
is safer than trying to live
don’t you know?

building walls in front of my dreams
stops the pain from ever entering,
it stops people from touching the tender places
that I can’t heal from the other hands
that left me broken.