What Could Have Been

Why do we wonder? 

Is is a quiet rebellion? Refusal to accept It as it is? 

A mental shield to protect from routine and repetition?

Is its continual persistence to blur the harshness of reality?

What If This 

Suppose That 

If It Was 

Wonder, constant as breath or beating of a heart 

As if a sixth sense

Sense of wonder, a magical sense 

Slowing time just enough to notice the little things in life,

turning questions to possibility

Constantly curious

Awed by life's simplicity 

Wary in a good way, never quite satisfied

Like a child why, why, why,

why this and why that 

Why is the color blue called blue,

why is fire hot,

why does the sky change colors before night

Children possess the keenest sense of wonder to be found

noticing what no other will, coming into the world free of the "already known"

Asking questions of the most ordinary, the answer to their questions less important than the asking,

giving things overlooked new meaning 

Children are the fresh pair of eyes proofreading a paper,

the new angle needed to acquire a solution

They are the future, without new eyes, solutions, there would be no change 

No questions to be asked, same, same, same 

Quiet, unchanging, comfortable, imagination replaced by silence

World never changing no new perspectives to be had

Change is hard 

It can feel like a floor collapsing beneath your feet or water being poured over the fire providing comfort and heat

but comfort does not allow change

Comfort allows the fire to burn too big, too bright, smoke clouding judgement and heat numbing the need to move 

it kills everything ahead, becoming too blinded to see and then?

All to be left are scorch marks of what could have been.