Adulted Too Young
\nVirginia Carraway Stark<\/p>\n
It didn’t take long
\nAs a little child
\nTo see that adults
\nNeeded lots of help<\/p>\n
When I was small
\nMy mom crawled into my bed
\nShe said, “now you have to take
\ncare of me, daddy left.” <\/p>\n
I held my mother while she cried,
\nKnowing I wasn’t allowed to cry myself.
\nMy heart was skimmed over with cold
\nAbandoned and alone,
\nShe stole my comfort for herself<\/p>\n
Years later:
\nMy mother died while I was gone
\nI hadn’t spoken to her in years
\nShe couldn’t take care of herself
\nShe couldn’t take care of me
\nAnd my little brother called me,’mommy’
\nHe cried in my bed, <\/p>\n
I taught him to swim
\nHow to read and do math
\nI read to him bedtime stories
\nShakespeare, Plato and other classics
\nThe other boys didn’t get <\/p>\n
It took me years to learn how to cry
\nMy own tears for myself.<\/p>\n
But I wasn’t there when she died
\nSomehow I should have known- they said
\nShe drank too much water- and died
\nHow could a daughter have known?
\nWhy was I the one to blame? <\/p>\n
all those years long ago
\nShe crawled up my leg
\na monster in the dark
\nshe put the adult curse onto me
\nan infernal game of tag,
\n‘you’re the adult now, tag,
\nno returnsie!’ <\/p>\n
Adults everywhere with abuse
\nBut no power to help, or no will to help
\n(the same thing, aren’t they?)
\nBut old people would shelter me,
\nFeed me, and hide me, teach me…
\nThere was something to look forward to there? <\/p>\n
I thought the old were wise
\nUntil I realized they could be cruel
\nPerhaps crueler than the young
\nThey can be kind as well, but
\nLike every human under the sun,
\nOr over the moon
\nThey must choose love over hate
\nNot covet the youth of the young. <\/p>\n
you live life and learn many things
\nWays to make things look better,
\nWork better, grow stronger, all the things
\nWe strive for in life
\nSome have a pocketful and some a wheelbarrow
\nBut each lifehack saves the generations a world of growing and pain <\/p>\n
Some are generous in their sharing,
\nOthers are stingy and unkind
\nCruel that you don’t already know
\nWhat took them a lifetime to live<\/p>\n
I realized this, when I saw a very young girl
\nBring in some art, she didn’t know a few easy tricks
\nI had only recently learned
\nI thought, ‘oh, she should have–‘
\nThen I realized, how could she have known?
\nIf I didn’t tell her(in a kind way)
\nIt could take her a decade to learn what I learned
\nIf I was cruel as people can be, and chase her away
\nHow awful for the arts and what a loss that would be! <\/p>\n
I knew then that ‘wisdom’ wasn’t any different than ‘lifehacks’
\nand the old are only as wise as they learned
\nThere first lessons: to be good sharers in grade K!
\nWith the internet we are all each other’s elders now
\nWe all share our wisdom
\nWe may have lost our families
\nBut we have life hacks
\nWe have supports our parents never dreamt of <\/p>\n
We know we don’t like adulting
\nWe don’t make our children adult for us
\nWe own our lack of adulting
\nWe share our lifehacks
\nWE earn new lifehacks<\/p>\n
The selfishness of the elders is on their heads
\nIf they want a captive audience
\nTo turn away
\nThey can keep their pockets full of secrets
\nWe will learn another way<\/p>\n
I thought wisdom came with age
\nThat was before I became friends
\nWith the old
\nI thought adults knew everything
\nThat was before
\nI adulted too young <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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