I Wonder How It Is The Children Of Eden

I wonder how it is the children of Eden

came to be measured for motor skills

for if they played well with others

if they were off their feed when they ran down the hills

and gathered cowslips.

somehow I have a need in my thesaurus of earth and small tears 

that children not be so quantified

not measured as gold against the silver child

weighed in one scale to count the gleams

and made to feel strange for a little while

that becomes a whole lifetime of feeling measured as in

permenant records, and the sign blinks off and on again

let's hear applause for the gregarious at the dank assembles

and disapprove the ones that dream

stamen and pistil under the microscope reviewed

flower from fragrance torn reproved

is not so loving to these, newborn

to little ones the treasure of earth

to little ones measurable from birth

and I and I cannot praise the quantifiers.

mary angela douglas 20 september 2020