children

every child is born
with a need for wonder;
he wants to turn his eyes
on something he can admire,
to be led to a mountaintop
where he can
contemplate the splendid view,
the changing light,
the snow,
the reflections on ice,
and the soaring eagle,
majestically protecting its young,
as human parents ought to do, too.

but instead,
the landscpe that stretches out
before many children,
all the way to the horizon,
is often nothing
but an open-air rubbish dump,
where automobile carcasses,
broken chairs and plastic bags
litter the ground:
a single expanse
of desolation and disorder.

even stuck in such a situation,
a child can manage
to find something to admire-
a marble, perhaps-
and for a fraction of a second,
the world contains no more shadows
and shines in his hands!!