The Most Important Collection Poem by Jim Yerman

Dear Parents,

As your children we love collecting things…
We collect bugs.
We collect dolls.
We collect the feathers that fall from birds.
But we're also listening to everything you say
and collecting all your words.

Your words of compassion.
Your words of joy.
When you call someone a name.
Your words of love.
Your words of hate.
We collect them all the same.

And when we get a little older
(we're sure you won't find this confusing)
the words we've collected from you
are the words we will be using.

So this is a just a gentle reminder
from the time we're very small
the words we're collecting from you
will become our most important collection of them all.

Love,

Your children.