The Forbidden Time Question Word
THE FORBIDDEN TIME QUESTION WORD
What we know is that the forbidden word means at what time, during what period?
Happily it also means during the time that, at the moment that -
All easy enough to skirt around grammatically.
Though can we skirt the really difficult issue with just a nod?
What kids are always preoccupied with is questions of time - they sigh,
Hoping against hope, as if they doubted the future
Entirely. They ask how or what or who or why
Rarely as often as this time question.
Each kid seems to need non-stop clock-measure close by.
Where time is concerned, it has great significance for a small child.
How can we ask a one-year-old to wait a week? It’s asking for 2 percent of his life.
You ask a five-year-old to wait a month - again you’ve cut out 2 percent with your knife.
Why ! - asking a three-year-old to wait a month before an expected treat (say)
Has the same time-impact as asking me to stand and wait about two years for a seat.
If I express it more urgently, if you ask a three-year-old to wait
Calmly for an hour for the toilet, it is like asking me to wait nearly a whole day.
Hopefully no one will ask me to wait thus.
Which is really getting us nowhere. What man really cares much?
He can wait if patient; or act if impatient. How long will he wait?
Only he knows which hour of the clock will be his deadline. Who else can know?
No one can really know, for we have no word to express it.
…………………………………………………
Written by Sydney Peck
for Paula Swanson’s Contest “When”
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