March!

The groundhog was wrong.

The Georgia groundhog (General Beauregard Lee) predicted an early spring. 4 weeks to the day later, and we were under a Winter Storm Warning with snow falling most of the morning/early afternoon. At least the weekend looks nice (for now).

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Here are poems for the past three days in my poem-a-day through 2010 attempt:

059-Association

My duck turned into a lizard, a wall
of water--a spinning wheel, empty
tube--release the children into a net--
swing legs over a bench he forgets
the rules & lets them run wild
alone with a 2,500-year-old mummy
counting the rings of a dead tree.


060-Poet explains science & religion

The main difference is that one
happens to us; the other is something
we call down upon ourselves.


061-Half-full

There's nothing worse than a toothache
except maybe a building on fire.

There's nothing prettier than a sunset
except maybe a lily beside a stream.

There's nothing smarter or dumber
than a passive aggressive know-it-all.

Put down the aspirin and extinguisher,
wade into the water and wait--

the moon is sure to rise.

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I am in a constant state of awe concerning the things children feel. While I was in Ohio, Ben and Jonah both confided in me that they feel like outcasts at school. Ben broke down crying that kids are always mean to him and call him weird, except for his one friend who is from Japan; Jonah didn't cry, but he did say that kids think he's a nerd when he wears his glasses. Plus, they are both afraid the world is going to be consumed by a black hole, because of the Large Hadron Collider residing more than 100 meters under the Franco-Swiss border.

Of course, if it wasn't a black hole, they would be afraid of asteroids or terrorists or vampires or something. Children are filled with fears and insecurities. As a parent, it breaks my heart and reminds me that children are a lot like little adults. At the same time, they are not adults yet.

Back in Georgia, Baby Will is filled with a crazy amount of courage to try climbing and standing on things that he shouldn't be climbing or standing on, but any kind of stranger or loud noise sends him running for the safety of my legs, which he'll hide behind and/or beneath. Reese loves creating scary stories, but he pointed at a spider for me to kill earlier tonight from the other end of the living room (constantly repeating that the spider was not an April Fool's Day joke).

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You can follow me on Twitter @robertleebrewer, or join my fan page on Facebook by clicking here.

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Also, if you want to read the wise words of people much wiser than myself, I suggest you check out Words From the Wise, by Rosemarie Jarski. Click to continue.