When I was a child (2018)
Words by Erin Bregman.
Performed by Duo Cortona (Rachel Calloway and Ari Streisfeld) at the University of South Carolina as part of the Gabriela Lena Frank Creative Academy of Music
When I was a child
I longed to be a grown up
Wise,
Knowing all the answers.
So I put on my parents’ clothes,
Shirt,
Shoes,
Coat,
Hat.
Ran into the kitchen
And said:
Look! Look!
I’m a grown up!
No,
They said.
Not yet,
They said.
Go to bed.
Oh, to be a grown up.
Wise,
I wanted all the answers.
So I read all my parents’ books:
Dickens,
Tolkien,
Austin,
Keats.
I ran to the kitchen and said:
Look! I’m done!
I’m a grown up!
No,
They said.
Not yet,
They said.
Get to bed.
What else,
To be a grown up?
Wise,
With all the answers?
I made lemonade and sold it:
Five,
Ten,
Fifteen,
twenty.
I threw my bills
On the table and said:
There! Money!
I earned it.
That makes me a grown up.
Admit it!
No,
They said.
Not -
I don’t understand.
I dress like you now
read like you now
work like you now.
I’m a grown up.
Tell me the answers.
They were quiet.
Still.
A sad little smile
and I knew
I was the answer.
So I pulled up a chair
And took my place at the grown up table
My feet dangling far above the floor.
- Erin Bregman (April, 2018)