The doors from where the journey starts --
A Child Care Center where it starts with greetings and goodbyes --
a few tears and some separation anxiety,
instant laughter and exhilaration,
pretend play and make-believe world,
fingerpainting and clay sculptures,
the Michelangelo and Picasso of tomorrow,
the “once upon a time” and ”what if games.”
Explorations and wide-eyed amazement,
an Einstein may yet spring.
Imagination, stories, songs, and rhythm,
cooking with smeared flour and chocolates,
chuckles and giggles,
nurturing, growth, and promises of tomorrow,
an early learning center, a place full of windows --
the childhood where the journey starts --
and many, many doors yet to open.
The Windows where the journey reaches its ultimate truth --
One door, after which the road ends.
A Senior’s Home --
some sad, some stark, expressionless gazes – blank,
looking out through many windows of lifetime reminiscences --
childhood pranks, first kisses, and school proms,
the wedding outfits, and honeymoon,
choosing the names of children,
the first home,
family vacation --
now, confined within the lifeless walls,
wheelchairs and walkers,
the rattles of medicine carts,
weary nurses with charts,
the odor of antiseptics, Lysols, and withered lives,
helpless, incapable, powerless,
thinking perhaps,
meaningless words,
where life stands still.
Windows, yes to look back,
The doors shut one by one.
Is this where the journey reaches its ultimate truth!
Meenakshi Mohan, Ed.D., is a scholar, art critic, children’s writer, painter, and poet. She has taught at universities in Chicago, Boston, and, more recently, for Towson University in Maryland. She has published worldwide both in the academic and creative areas. She has been listed twice in the Who is Who Among American Teachers. She is on the Editorial Team for Inquiry in Education, a peer-reviewed journal published by National Louis University, Chicago, Illinois.
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