Cantankerous
© Rolf Hendriks March 22, 2018
We the cantankerous
to you who try to handle us
have a message for you
in these verses and stanzas.
Far back in our youth
you tried to tie our shoes
you tried to pick our clothes
and you tried to pick our food.
You tried to run our lives,
every minute every day,
not leaving enough time
for socializing play
and, with scientific precision,
removing our need to make a decision.
So of course we acted out
and we’d have none of that
asserting early on
the personalities we had.
You told us to draw within the lines. So you know what we did? We drew our own lines to fill in.
You told us not to run with scissors. So you know what we did? We took our scissors and ran with them. That’s right, we ran with scissors! Then we pretended to fall. Then we secretly smeared ketchup all over our overalls and said aaaaaah!
You told us not to make faces because they will stick. So you know what we did? We made the funniest faces until they stuck! Except they never stuck! And the audience cracked up! And we’d wait ‘til you start drinking so your drink would throw up!
You said the plate was hot. So you know what we did? We touched it! That’s right, we touched it! Why? Because we wanted to know how hot. Shower hot? Boiling hot? Jalepeño hot? So we touched the plate, and our fingers got burned. Then the fingers got healed, and that’s how we learned.
We the cantankerous
to you who micromanage us
have a message for you in these verses and stanzas.
Some of us are entrepreneurs, fed up with the status quo, picking our heart up, acting out our outrage by starting a startup.
Some of us are artists, creative and free, our dendritic minds unveiling many things unseen.
Some of us are problem solvers, bending our brains through twists and turns and points of intersection. Because the solution to a new problem never comes with directions.
Some of us are just fun and great to be around, enlivening a social scene by entering the crowd.
We the cantankerous
who know you can’t handle us
have a message for you in these verses and stanzas.
Let go of control,
know that you are not we.
Stop trying to mold
a shape that won’t be.
There’s no need to lecture
no need to berate
most of us applied ourselves
and ended up great.