When I Was a Child

Contributor: Cynthia Pitman

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When they said there was a “window” of time
for the space shuttle to leave the atmosphere,
I thought they meant that a big window
would open in the surface of the earth,
and the shuttle would emerge from inside.

When they said “burning at the stake,”
I thought they meant laying someone on a grill
and cooking him outdoors, just like you would a steak.

When they said “convergence of the twain,”
I thought they meant “twain” as in “Mark Twain,”
never knowing it meant “two.”

When they said she was “drawing on her gloves,”
I thought they meant she was drawing pictures
on her gloves with a crayon.

All of these things I thought.
I saw no reason to think otherwise.

But when they said
“everything happens for a reason,”
I thought they meant for a good reason.
Now I see the one real reason to think otherwise:
human suffering.
What is a good reason for that?


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I'm a retired English teacher from Orlando. I have had or will have poetry and fiction published in Right Hand Pointing, Literary Yard, Amethyst Review, Saw Palm, and others.