Won’t you be my Neighbor
Tag Archives: children
Unprovoked
I had a kid once who came up to me when I was about 11yrs old, and out of nowhere hit me across the jaw…. totally unprovoked…I didn’t know him at all and then he ran away.
I was stunned but I wasn’t mad…I instinctively knew there was something more to the story..
So I approached this kid cautiously and asked him why he hit me… Apparently this kid was new to the school and someone who looked a lot like me had bullied him really bad, and I think, took something from him earlier…
I told him I wasn’t that person and that you should go tell a teacher about it… he apologized and later his younger brother of all things was in the same class as me and we became friends.
I think he was scared, angry and lashing out… They had just moved from another city… they were at a strange school …didn’t have any friends… it was a more urban school (rougher) than they were used to and I think they were just trying to figure it all out…
I could have chosen to escalate the incident but I didn’t …and that means everything sometimes in life in regards to trying to relate and get along with your fellow man.
by Philip Wardlow 2018
A Spanking is needed
The world needs to be taken and spanked
No admonishments, no time outs, no taking away
of their favorite pastimes, friends or toys.
Just simply bend them over, pull down their pants,
and SMACK!
Kick your legs, wail and cry if you must world,
but its long over due.
Like “Oh Fudge” there are certain words or phrases that cannot
be undone or taken back,
nor deeds that need to be reasoned or examined.
Vicious little children at times,
knowing sticks and stones do break
bones as their words
words sink in and bite them.
I want to spank the world until their breath
comes in shudders and they are barely
able to mutter, a single syllable of hate.
Feel the shame burn below,
Feel the lesson course in your soul
that begs to be enlightened.
Sit gingerly and remember the pain
and know it may come again
if you continue your childish
ways.
Grow up oh little world,
Grown up.
Philip Wardlow 2016
Skeleton Prince – 30 Day Halloween Poem Challenge – Poem a Day – Poem#8
The Skeleton Prince,
with eyes dark and vacant
as an empty mouse hole,
looked down from his lofty
perch.
Feet dangling over a crescent Moon.
Halloween had come again.
All the little children
were scurrying about from house to house,
collecting their useless tidbits
of candy.
During the year as always,
ignored he was, no matter how
how loud he yelled down through
the clouds.
The children didn’t like him.
He supposed it had to do with his lack of skin.
It was just skin.
Who needed skin on the moon?
But Halloween had come, and for one night a year
the children looked up and saw past his
lack of skin and smiled.
And he smiled back and even waved
at some who stopped and took the time to
really look up.
He knew it was fleeting,
for soon Halloween would be gone.
and the loneliness would return.
But he reveled in their smiles and their laughter.
The witches, the goblins, and skeletons and the myriad
of monstrosities which abounded.
He was one of them, if for the briefest of moments,
and the coldness in his bones seem to lessen
just a bit.
The night flew like the fall winds
and nary a child walked about.
Most were inside counting their candy
from the mountain dumped upon their
living room floor.
Soon there were none save one
in the night.
A little girl, wearing a dress of
gossamer white, with a diamond studded
tiara upon her dainty head. Crying.
“Why do you cry so.” the Skeleton Prince asked
“Two mean trolls took my bag of treats” said the little girl
looking up.
“That is no way to treat a Princess,” he huffed
“Here, I think you will quite like this instead.” he said, as he pulled from behind
his back a jagged saw which he placed against the moon and began to cut a piece off.
Bits of the moon crumbled and tumbled to the little girl
below and fell into her lap.
“Take those pieces and place them under your pillow.
Make three wishes before going to bed, and in turn you will wake to them
fulfilled in good stead. Now GO!” the Skeleton Prince commanded
The little girl ran.
With that, the Skeleton Prince went also to bed,
head hanging low to wait for next Hallow’s Eve.
A knocking awoke him, and that knocking
was inside his own head.
for the little princess was their tap tap tapping
on his bony skull.
“I made Three Wishes dear Skeleton Prince.”
“One was for candy, and oh, did it come in loads!”
“The second was to be your friend. So here I am!”
“And the third…?” The Prince asked
“Why, for it to be Halloween every single day of the year.”
by Philip Wardlow
Haunted Baby. – 30days till Halloween Challenge – Poem #2
Haunted Baby
While I slumber you climb out from your graveyard crib
and creep.
What foul revenge do you seek?
Baby Baby , Haunted Baby.
Stay Away!
But to my kitchen you do go,
to grab the sharpest knife you see,
then toddle and teeter on unsure feet
with a sure grip on blade in hand,
you make your way to where I sleep.
Baby Baby, Haunted Baby
Stay Away!
I toss and turn,
for in the dim fog that is my brain,
I feel a nightmare approach
in a slow dead march
down my long dark hall.
Baby Baby, Haunted Baby
Stay Away!
With dead baby teeth you pull your way up
my crisp linen sheets like
an animal enraged.
The moon shining through my window
is the sole witness
to your evil
as you plunge
the blade deep.
It is only then a smile
replaces the snarl
on your lips
as you fade off to
sleep.
Baby, Baby.
By Philip Wardlow
Pulled – A poem
Pulled
A little girl stands with arms open wide.
How must it feel to be the rope in a
game of tug-o-war?
Win or lose, it’s all the same,
the pain of strained muscles
and sinew running down to the core;
almost ripping.
Braided rope is much stronger than a little’s
girl mind or her soul that must hold to a
reality that slowly unwinds.
Her psyche is soft and pliable and will
if pulled, stretched, and thinned out
to nary a whisper of herself, will
harden in the cold stale air and become
brittle and slowly break away in pieces for
all her days to come.
By Philip Wardlow 2012
It took only One – Olivia Engle
It took only one face on the list to make my brown eyes brim,
It took only one big glorious smile to enter into me and
have my heart fill up and overflow onto the floor.
I didn’t want to look too deeply for it cut too deep,
yet I feel I should for her.
Here was a life never to know another day.
Here was a little girl with laughter in her eyes
and a future as bright as the sun;
I could feel that warmth radianting,
and seeping into me as I saw her
soul shining forth from the screen.
It took only one and there are
so many more.
It took only one and her name
was Olivia Engle.
By Philip Wardlow 2012
#unsung
Ain't no rest for the Wicked - Philip Wardlow - The real and the sensual sides to life in all its facets.. 