A Day In The Life Of A Five-Year Old Poem by Lorna Billanes

You've asked me how the spider weaves
Such fine-looking web
How it keeps itself safe in its net.
Plucked from its web, doesn't it plummet to its death?

I tell you it knows how to protect itself.
You ask, is it true it knows how to weave
Even at a tender age?
At a tender age, without a mother, can it weave?
I answer: It knows; it knows, just like you.
You ask me why lizards come down from the ceiling
To kiss the earth.
I tell you: observe, observe.
At a certain hour they come down to kiss the ground
To pay homage to their mothers.

Oftentimes you've pried open a banana blossom
And finding a flower within a flower
You've asked about its cycle.
I describe how each tiny flower
Blossoms into the many-fingered bananas that you fancy.

You've pressed me for answers about cats,
Those feline wonders
Leaping from great heights, unharmed though perhaps dazed.
You want to understand why they caterwaul,
Why they are solitary,
Why they feed their young
But sometimes feed on them, too.

I want to tell you the universe is immense
That its wonders are as commonplace
As the rhythm of the sea
And its mysteries- perpetual, unfolding, secret
Are as infinite as the air you breath.