Lies I've Told My 3-year-old Recently by Raul Gutierrez

Lies I've Told My 3-year-old Recently

by Raul Gutierrez

Trees talk to each other at night.

All fish are named either Lorna or Jack.

Before your eyeballs fall out from watching too much TV,

     they get very loose.

Tiny bears live in drain pipes.

If you are very very quiet you can hear the clouds rub

     against the sky.

The moon and the sun had a fight a long time ago.

Everyone knows at least one secret language.

When nobody is looking, I can fly.

We are all held together by invisible threads.

Books get lonely too.

Sadness can be eaten.

I will always be there.

(Poor lonely books)

I do not think you will be surprised to learn that this poem went viral and continues to roam the interwebs and get passed around. It was first posted on Gutierrez's blog, Heading East, on March 18, 2008. Yes, almost 20 years ago. The comments are, as usual for the nature of our computer age, interesting, ranging from personal notes to the poet to people raging about parents lying to children, from parents confessing their own lies to people's tangents based on one image in the poem. Gutierrez is the founder Tinybop, which makes apps for kids, most of them educational.

It is obvious, is it not, to see why this poem went viral and why it continues to resonant. We were lied to as kids. We lie to kids. Most of us do so to be kind or to "explain" something in terms we believe that child/those children will understand. (I am not going to get into the lies adults tell children for nefarious and evil purposes.) Most of the items in Gutierrez's list poem are sweet; I am particularly fond of the tiny bears living in drain pipes, all of us knowing a secret language (which seems very true in an existential and very adult way), and the deeply optimistic and also very true "We are all held together by invisible threads."

"Sadness can be eaten" is just good advice.

It's the last line, though. But what are you going to say to a child of any age? "Yes, I am going to leave you someday. I may get hit by a car and die instantly while you are still young. I may live to an old age and you will have to endure my physical and cognitive decline in ways that will break you. Who knows? But, yes, Daddy and Mommy will both die and leave you."

Of course you would not say that (I hope). This is not even a white lie, but a lie that every parent, every adult knows will fade as the child ages and their comprehension of mortality matures. They do not need to be told their parents will die--not at any age. We all eventually get to that place of understanding, and in the best scenario it is when we are all well out of childhood.

I hope that every viral poem out there gets people looking for other poems and that leads to more readers of poetry. On that note, please feel free to share any poem I have posted here, post links to poems, and share this website with your friends. Two great poems, twice a week, and most (I am working on getting to all) have commentary and it's all free!

See you on Wednesday, and who knows what great poem I will have for you then--I do not even know at this point!