Would You?

Would you like to grow up?

Leave home, escape to the corners of the earth.

Find freedom.

Learn to fly, to sing, to dance.

Taste the sweet rain.

Would you like to grow up?

Spend nights studying till you cry.

But there is laughter with friends.

Work long hours that twist and bend.

Gain new names: aunt, teacher, spouse.

Would you like to grow up?

Watch the world crumble and age.

Wars start, tear rip, shatter, everything you knew.

Adults don't get to run from this.

Fires burn the trees and men eat the earth.

Would you like to grow up?

Then it starts, the aging.

Adults fade to dust and soil.

Family dies: grandparents, uncles, aunts.

Friendship wither, new ones bloom.

Would you like to grow up?

Bury a child, a baby, cause accidents happen.

Mark miscarriages on the wall like days

On stranded islands. One, two, three, four.

You sicken to count another.

Would you like to grow up?

Your skin sags with stress,

Your mind melts with grief.

Everything marches to death,

With you trapped, watching.

Would you like to grow up?

Kids laugh, chase, a mirror

Into the hope you once held.

No sorrow for them,

In the shelter you built.

Would you like to grow up?

Lay your parents to rest

With the same hands that

Tuck your children into bed.

And pretend to be strong. Pretend. Pretend.

Would you like to grow up?

Change names again to Grandma,

Bury half your soul in the ground

With nothing to console but the

Steady rhythm of time.

Would you like to grow up?

Kids are busy, now adults

Watching the same barrel

Point for them that found you.

One does drugs, one is well.

Would you like to grow up?

Bury your son the poisen found.

And sit, sit, sit.

As the world revolves around your porch.

Add great to your name, like a badge.

Would you like to grow up?

Ramble on and on,

Like a run on sentence bending

To lines in a poem.

But, all stories end.