Explore child,
Watch and learn,
Plant your hand on every surface;
Your mouth over every object.
Listen to your mother
(But not too often),
Listen to your father
(But don’t make it easy).
When you hurt you may cry;
When you’re tired you may sleep;
When you’re happy be delightful;
When you’re winning you must:
Keep on,
Stay strong,
Fail often,
But learn from
Your mistakes:
The nasty ones;
The ones that change your life forever
Like raw flesh on sandpaper;
Like oil over bird’s feathers.
At times you'll struggle to keep it together.
When the bottle’s empty and your lace undone,
You’ll know you are the only one,
You’ll scream, you’ll kick, you’ll close your eyes:
The dark descends,
The night arrives.
And once the day has come again
The wounds you gained will start to mend;
Scars will be left, remember this.
So do what you want to do,
Don’t live your life like me,
Because now I live in familiarity
And now I only watch.
And now I touch what I know.
And now I eat what I am given.
There are no more tears,
No people here who know me.
Be simple in your thoughts and feelings
At the end of the day, my child,
We are but lonely souls.