Effervescence
by Cassie Schifman '18
I promised to give you the whole world
Wrapped up in shiny paper and sealed with a big red bow and a vow,
That you would have stars and snowstorms and light blue skies,
Pirate ships with purple sails,
Overgrown grass and perfectly sharpened pencils and books with spiraling sentences
So that you can bask in sea of complicated words.
I promised to give you a compendium of all human knowledge,
condensed to fit on a three by five card and written in ink the same shade as your skies
Bright green shoes that always stay tied,
Balloons unburdened by the pull of gravity,
And joy, because nothing else is necessary.
But the world, it seems, is not so bright,
More so some paradox of daybreak that inevitably fades to darkness,
Where hope is too fleeting and faith is too blind and boots always get muddy,
Pirates grow up to be accountants,
There are shadows at the door and creaks in the floorboards
And we are fools to believe the light can save us.
In this real world, we are all weighed down by gravity
Wisdom is tainted by the sting of experience and dreaming is left to children
And though it may be all that I promised you,
This could never be seen as a gift.
Instead, I offer you this:
The world, as viewed from the underside of a bubble floating just beyond your reach
Catching the light of a single candle and granting no satisfaction to the darkness,
Transparent except for those spots in which it is more than beautiful
Sheltered but safe,
And tangled up in metaphor you cannot understand.
I offer you not the wisdom of age but the innocence of childhood,
The belief that you will be protected,
Sun stricken windows and the knowledge that even if you fall I will catch you
And the wind will carry you from there.
Wrapped up in shiny paper and sealed with a big red bow and a vow,
That you would have stars and snowstorms and light blue skies,
Pirate ships with purple sails,
Overgrown grass and perfectly sharpened pencils and books with spiraling sentences
So that you can bask in sea of complicated words.
I promised to give you a compendium of all human knowledge,
condensed to fit on a three by five card and written in ink the same shade as your skies
Bright green shoes that always stay tied,
Balloons unburdened by the pull of gravity,
And joy, because nothing else is necessary.
But the world, it seems, is not so bright,
More so some paradox of daybreak that inevitably fades to darkness,
Where hope is too fleeting and faith is too blind and boots always get muddy,
Pirates grow up to be accountants,
There are shadows at the door and creaks in the floorboards
And we are fools to believe the light can save us.
In this real world, we are all weighed down by gravity
Wisdom is tainted by the sting of experience and dreaming is left to children
And though it may be all that I promised you,
This could never be seen as a gift.
Instead, I offer you this:
The world, as viewed from the underside of a bubble floating just beyond your reach
Catching the light of a single candle and granting no satisfaction to the darkness,
Transparent except for those spots in which it is more than beautiful
Sheltered but safe,
And tangled up in metaphor you cannot understand.
I offer you not the wisdom of age but the innocence of childhood,
The belief that you will be protected,
Sun stricken windows and the knowledge that even if you fall I will catch you
And the wind will carry you from there.
