written for Shay’s Word Garden – George Hitchcock
words: butter, cicada, cinders, confetti, consumptive, exploded, fractions, geysers, gibbering, gong, lions, mandolin, mask, masquerading, pagoda, plumed, revolver, scaffold, syllabus, wag
The little girl wanted to know what would happen if she took the light bulb from her mother’s kitchen and plugged it in to God. She imagined an explosion - a geyser of stars. Her teacher said God is not a power point. The little girl wanted to know what would happen if she carved up the moon and sold it in patty pans at school. Her teacher said round things don’t tessellate so what would she do with the scraps? She said she could sew a wonderful cape. The little girl wanted to know if stars got pins and needles or if rockets catch cinders from them tiny flakes of star-beam come to Earth with NASA. Could you use a one as a torch? Her teacher said he couldn’t keep up with all her questions. And besides, they weren't on the syllabus. The little girl folded her curiosity neatly and put it in her bag Her Mum tipped it thoughtlessly into the bin that night along with an apple core and a crumpled chip packet. It’s at the tip somewhere masquerading as a child's lunchbox and wouldn't you like to know if curiosity is biodegradable?
Out of the Cave 
A lovely good fun read wormie 🙂
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Thanks!
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Really sad and all too common, Jo 😦
~David
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Yes. I don’t doubt it.
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Wonderful. Maybe curiosity is part of the circle of life and will be back.
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Oh, I can answer that! It is biodegradable if left at the landfill too long, but if it is rescued and hidden in a hope chest, no one can dim it, not even when the child is a child no longer (Part of her always will be). But you knew that before you asked, didn’t you, Jo? I think the #1 thing a poet must have is the ability to continue to see and question things as a child does. Boxy thinking won’t do. But you knew that, too. Just look at your poems, they burst with freshness and imagination.
Did you leave “Question” singular in your title intentionally or was that an oversight? I only mention it because, if it were me, I would want someone to tell me. If it was intentional, my apologies.
The questions in this piece are amazing. They show a mind unbound by any kind of fetter, and a marvelous curiosity. I love them! To hear them is to realize you’re dealing with a special spirit. The teacher’s responses are hilariously prosaic (though he makes a good point about the scraps. Her rejoinder that she will make a wonderful cape out of them is priceless. The mother’s ultimate response is heart-rending and right on the money, because she likely can’t even recognize such a gift as the one her child has.
Jo, you are a poet through and through. I have jabbered on at length about this piece and still feel that I haven’t conveyed how marvelous it really is, and how few people could ever write it. One of my favorite lines is one I read in a book of poetry by Amy Lowell when I was still in high school: “Fate lays many springes for those with imagination.” I had to look up “springes.” Traps. Your piece illustrates that to a tee, but despite that hard lesson within, it still left me smiling.
–Shay
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Thank you so much, Shay for your enthusiasm and wonderful support! And thanks also for picking up the typo in the title. I will definitely fix that!!
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Oh so good!!
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Thanks!
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Love it. “She folded her curiosity neatly and put it in her bag” So to the point of the parenting challenge of keeping the children’s curiosity out in the open. Excellent!
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Thank you Ulle!
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Your brilliance shines.
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❤️ Thank you
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I love the wry wisdom in this piece, Worms, and the unexpected twists and turns all the way through, especially this whole section:
“The little girl wanted to know what would happen if she carved up the moon and sold it in patty pans at school.
Her teacher said
round things don’t tessellate
so what would she do with the scraps?
She said she could sew a wonderful cape.”
🙂
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Thanks, Sunra
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A wonderful read!
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Many thanks!
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I LOVE this! Whimsical, hilarious, and profound. I mean, “God is not a power point”, “if curiosity is biodegradable” -so many memorable, incredible lines
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Thank you!! ❤
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