Children’s Games

(For Lionel)

All toddlers love to play with wooden blocks.
They stack them up as high as they can go,
Then give a push and watch them take their knocks
As down they tumble, scattering to and fro.
Of grand designs, their minds are unaware;
Invidiousness does not yet compute.
In disarray they find a joyful scare,
And we encourage them in that pursuit.
Then, as adults, the champions we love,
Who seem, unerringly, to walk so tall,
Though praised by us in song to stars above,
We mock if they should tumble for a fall.
    The child in us, so innocent in youth,
    Becomes crueler as we grow far from Truth.