Should Children Know Their Parents

Should children gaze with tender eyes, To trace the mysteries that time has drawn, To see the dreams that bloom, then fade, In lives that journey toward the dawn? A mother’s smile, a father’s sigh, Hold stories wrapped in years of gold, But do the young yet comprehend The burdens hearts must gently hold? They see the hands that smooth their hair, Yet miss the calloused toil they bare; They hear the songs in quiet rooms, Not all the unsung notes they sing. Perhaps it's best they only see The surface calm, the steadfast glow, While we conceal the aching truths— The love they reap, they'll one day sow. And yet, what grace, when time unfolds, To meet as equals, eye to eye, And know the ones who gave them life, Were dreamers, too, who loved and tried.