Questions My Son Asked Me, Answers I Never Gave Him by Nancy Willard
Questions My Son Asked Me, Answers I Never Gave Him
Nancy WillardDo gorillas have birthdays?
Yes. Like the rainbow they happen,
like the air they are not observed.Do butterflies make a noise?
The wire in the butterfly’s tongue hums gold.
Some men hear butterflies
even in winter.Are they part of our family?
They forgot us, who forgot how to fly.Who tied my navel? Did God tie it?
God made the thread: O man, live forever!
Man made the knot: enough is enough.If I drop my tooth in the telephone
will it go through the wires and bite someone’s ear?
I have seen earlobes pierced by a tooth of steel.
It loves what lasts.
It does not love flesh.
It leaves a ring of gold in the wound.If I stand on my head
will the sleep in my eye roll up into my head?
Does the dream know its own father?
Can bread go back to the field of its birth?Can I eat a star?
Yes, with the mouth of time
that enjoys everything.Could we xerox the moon?
This is the first commandment:
I am the moon, thy moon.
Thou shalt have no other moons before thee.Who invented water?
The hands of the air, that wanted to wash each other.What happens at the end of numbers?
I see three men running toward a field.
At the edge of the tall grass, they turn into light.Do the years ever run out?
God said, I will break time’s heart.
Time ran down like an old phonograph.
It lay flat as a carpet.
At rest on its threads I am learning to fly.
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SHARED WITH GRATITUDE
This poem appeared in Household Tales of Moon and Water by Nancy Willard, published by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1982. (Available on: Amazon • Bookshop)
DESCRIPTION
“This collection of forty-four poems by a Newbery Medal winner is a quiet celebration of domestic life. Willard describes personal events-the birth of her child, an imaginary conversation with her small son, tending her garden-and each poem becomes a story that elevates the commonplace and renders the ordinary special. “Willard is full of surprises. She writes about the natural world with the vigorous specificity of someone newly come upon it, original and wise, all at once” (Maxine Kumin).” (Source)
ABOUT NANCY WILLARD
Nancy Willard, the award-winning, versatile author of dozens of volumes of children’s fiction and poetry, also wrote novels, poetry, short stories, and literary criticism for adults. The first recipient of a Newbery Medal for a volume of poetry. By the age of seven, Willard had already published her first poem, and as a senior in high school her “A Child’s Star” was published in Horn Book. One of her teenage illustrations was, in fact, used as a Horn Book Christmas card. During… (more)
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ENDNOTES
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