Body and Head

Children live in their body.
They bicycle and skateboard and rollerblade.
They play Tag and Hide-and-Seek and Hopscotch
and Ring-Around-A-Rosy and Baseball and Football.
Children run and jump and stumble and fall and cry and run again.
They laugh and chatter and shout and giggle
and interrupt and seldom seem to listen.
Children only stop from exhaustion
or when exhausted grownups force them.

Grownups live in their head.
Some bicycle and rollerblade and jog,
slower and s-l-o-w-e-r.
The bowl and golf
and sit and smoke and drink
and read and watch TV–a lot
and sometimes think.
Grownups rarely cry and don’t laugh like they did.
The chatter and shout
and interrupt and seldom listen.
Grownups stop easily.
They would like to live in their body but it’s tired,
worn-out from once belonging to a child.