If I Could Be A Child Again

If I could only be a child again;

I think of all the things I’d do:

Tanned by the sun, playing in the rain,

In summer hols and on school days too.

Sneaking out to the pond in the afternoon,

Throwing skipping stones across the water;

Whistling to myself a silly tune,

Making faces at the neighbor’s daughter.

O if I could only be a child once more,

To climb that hill behind my house;

Come sliding down till my trousers tore

And return home to my mother's grouse.

I’d lie in bed gazing at the ceiling

Devising plans in my childish mind,

And fall asleep with the comforting feeling

That today’s cares are left behind.  

If I could once more be a child,

I’d promise to obey the golden rule:

I’d be good, yea much less wild,

And a lot kinder to some friends at school.

But I wouldn't trade for any treasure

The thrill of childish prankishness,

And the innocence of childish pleasure

In what grownups may call foolishness.

Eric Anthony Trott

17th September 2014