Children Will Listen

Careful the things you say,

Children will listen.

Grown-ups too.

Everytime you say something

Someone is listening

And whether you think it or not,

Someone is taking that thing you said

On board.

Even the most fleeting moment,

Like someone calling you a bitch

A little joke, something meant to be funny,

Can sting

Resonate for hours afterwards.

Make you question, wonder, feel small. 

Like the time, seventeen years ago,

When they were doing school photos,

And you sat down, and turned to the photographer

And smiled

And someone in your class yelled out, derisively,

“You’re such a goodie goodie!”.

And you chose to ignore it

Pretend you hadn’t heard

But it still hurt you.

All you had done was sat down.

Or the time, a year or so after the photo incident, 

That girl stole your lunchbox

For no reason, other than to take it

To make fun.

And it made you burn.

And you got up. And took back your lunchbox. And ate your sandwich or whatever was for lunch that day, and 

Pretended like it never happened.

Because you didn’t want to make a fuss.

Or the time, at the height (depth?) of your depression

And you had finally, for the first time in years,

Gotten up and made yourself go for a run,

And you were running down the hill

And a random, perfect stranger said,

“Stop trying, you’re only running down-hill”

And you kept running

Pretended like you hadn’t heard

But you thought,

“F*** You!! Do you know what it took for me to be running?!”

Or the time, much later, 

When your own flesh and blood says,

“I’m disowning you, because you traveled unmarried with your boyfriend”, 

And it stings because you don’t feel that that is wrong.

And you get to a point

When you’re in your late twenties

And you’re sick of people being assholes for no good reason.

And you just want to turn around and say like Kate Monster,

“Why can’t people just love each other and get along?”

And you take a deep breath.

And you try to remember to not be nasty,

To be a force for good in the world

And say nice things,

And hope it makes a difference

To the one person

Who might be listening.

The end.