By David Roth
©10 September, 2003
Down at the pool at the end of the day
Trying to read, but watching them play
The children, you see, are all here after school
Their home work is done, so they head to the pool
They run and they laugh, they splash and they swim
A beach ball goes flying at her, or at him
In blissful sweet ignorance gaily they play
Not knowing or caring what happened today
The world spins around them, yet so unaware
Their innocent laughter and joy fills the air
It’s if, for the moment, all time has stood still
These brief, fleeting moments, their pleasures to fill
They don’t bear the worries and burdens of life
They play in sweet innocence, absent of strife
No thoughts of Bi Laden, or Saddam Hussein
No war interferes with them diving again
They don’t ever worry who they should elect
Concerns of adulthood stand some distance yet
They simply enjoy these sweet moments at play
Tomorrow, unburdened, they’ll start a new day
And so while I watch them, I ask myself how
I lost the pure pleasure I’m seeing here now
What great cataclysm a long time ago
Deprived me of innocence, I’d like to know
And when in the life that I’ve lived did it die
This grasp of the moment that long since passed by
As I hear the laughter of children today
I wonder just when I forgot how to play
