Jerry Brotherton | + Follow Poet |
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Learn To Be Young

Heard my grandchildren the other day,
“We’re bored to death” is all they could say,
There just isn’t anything for us to do.
That got me to thinking about how,
the troubles that these youngsters have now,
would go away if they lived like we used to.

Way back when I was just a kid,
was at least a hundred things we did,
that kept us occupied pert near all the time.
'Course we had chores to do each day,
mowing grass, milking cows, hauling hay,
get the tractor and wash off the grease and grime.

But when the day’s chores had been done,
was time to really have some fun,
that’s when it was hard to choose what to do.
We could get out the old fishing pole,
head over to our favorite hole,
catch ourselves a big catfish or two.

Gather the eggs or feed the chicks,
there’s blackberries that need to be picked,
jump from the rafters into a pile of hay.
How far could we balance without fail,
walkin’ barefoot down the hot steel rail,
before our feet burned too much for us to stay. 

We could race down the narrow dirt road, 
or shoulder high corn that grew in rows,
or nap beneath the sweet honeysuckle vine.
Go outside and turn over some logs,
looking for fat worms or tiny frogs,
catch a few catfish for supper would be fine.

Climb to the top of the big oak tree,
feel the wind in our face blowing free,
looking down at the valley and town below.
We’d put our cut off blue jean shorts on, 
walk the five miles out to Rhiemer’s pond,
picnic and swim ‘til the sun begins to go.

Find a good place somewhere out of sight, 
when you’re playing Hide and Seek at night,
pile in a car and go see a drive-in show.
Play Red Rover, Ghost or Kick the Can,
roam around the town without a plan,
throwing snowballs from a fort we’d made of snow. 

Sat all alone on the back porch swing,
thinking about some serious things,
like where do the clouds in the sky really go.
What makes the wind blow or the grass green,
can it be real if it’s never seen,
is the rainbow placed in the sky just for show.

On evenings before the sun went down,
all of us kids would gather around,
and play freeze tag up until the lights came on.
A few times on a late summer’s night,
we’d lay on our backs under starlight,
breathing in deep the smell of a fresh mown lawn.

Them fancy gadgets we never knew,
but still had a million things to do,
like making diamond rings from a firefly’s glow.
But all you kids now a days it seems,
though you have the world on your small screens,
what’s going on beside you, you do not know.

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