I wish I was a child again,

Then I could fly like Superman

Or I could kill a thousand Huns,

Or capture tigers without guns.

I wish I was a child again,

Climbing walls and pinching apples,

And ringing bells and running off,

And hurling bricks in the old stone trough.

I wish I was a child again,

Enjoying milk and eating cake,

And spending sixpence in the shop,

And draining bottles of their last drop.

I wish I was a child again,

With tousled hair and bike-scraped knees,

And trousers never meant to fit

A boy who never learnt to sit.

I wish I was a child again,

Then I could play most every day,

With my gradchild, who, without fail,

Draws back with ease the memory’s veil.

I wish I was a child again.

It’s not that I can’t,

It’s not that I don’t

It’s not that I haven’t,

It’s just that I won’t.

It’s just that feeling that says ‘not just now’,

I couldn’t explain it, I wouldn’t know how.

Mind you, I could be persuaded, and if left, un-aided

I might come around, if I don’t feel too jaded.

But nevertheless, the time is not right,

And I’m not doing this just out of spite.

It’s just that…..

Oh, all right!

Give me a reason for seeing,

When all around is blind.

Give me a reason for listening

When deafness is all I can find.

Give me a reason for thinking….

A reason for using my mind.

Give me a reason for living….

For being a part of mankind.

In my sight there is death,

In my listening, its sounds,

In my thinking its reasons

In my living its bounds.

But, when my spirit weakens,

I look into the eyes of my children,

and my childrens’ children,

For there I see myself.

For there I see hope.

For there I see love.

For there I see an innocent defiance

That has the strength to overcome anything.

For there I see a spirit that does not know how to give in.

For there is my reason for living.