AN- Wrote this for my English class. Everyone in my family liked it...my mom even cried Oo not sure why though. Anyway, its sort of a re-write of "There Was A Child Went Forth" by Walt Whitman. The first stanza is copyrighted to Walt Whitman, it was required in the assignment, and it wouldn't fit right with out that stanza. So yea...read...review...and enjoy!

"Among Giants"

There was a child went forth every day And the first object she looked upon and received with
wonder or pity or love or dread, that object
she became And that object became a part of her for the day or a certain
part of the day...or for many years or stretching
cycles of years.

In the morning...two warmth's at her feet followed by
a lick at one hand and a purr at the other Or the impatient twit twittering from down the hall
that belongs to the one begging to
be let out of the white horizontal bars The bubbling sound of beans turned to liquid and, at times,
the putrid smell of microwaved eggs The mixture of grass and of gravel and of dandelions And the surrounding brown and green giants... The golden rays or the gray overhead blanket And the crisp or muggy or cold or wet or dry smell
sometimes even a mixture of all The song of the robin or jay or dove or phoebe or crow
and the chitter of squirrel or chipmunk or mouse The thin silver threads from the spider or the caterpillar
and the hum of the wasp or bee or perhaps
even the hummingbird All of this becomes a part of the child

The dusty dirt road leading down to the former farm The small, hardly ever full, pond that held no life but rather
sat behind the farm from time to time Fences, now all taken down, that once held
goats and horses and cows Ever spinning pinwheels laid round the run down yard that
still held a quaint beauty The small sprouts that will one day grow to plants with seeds that
pop and shoot from their pods when touched... Sprouts that surround a thrown together yet strong wire fence
coming off of a hand built coop and barn all in one The coop that once held twenty plus chickens though...
now holds only five The quant screen-house filled with various chairs and tables
standing across the dusty road from the hill where
the former kid pen and barn still stands A small hand-built house in the middle of all, that
through the years has been given numerous additions Lilac trees of white and purplish pink and dark purple
with a tarred driveway on one side...
the same dusty dirt road on the other
both leading to-

The black tar laid between the edges of woods on the left
and fields on the right Fields for running or walking or riding Fields for playing baseball or softball or soccer And across the field side of the tar, houses
belonging to family and friends on a street
where one is able to call and be called
by ones first name An elementary school so fondly given the name
of John F. Kennedy standing to the right of
the fields A new stump in the front of the school where
a tree once stood, knarled and old yet...
loved and needed, a former tree that
had once almost been product of
a plan for the planting of a young sprout which...
if planted, would have become the old tree of
future generations. The vast area of gravel which was once laid under a
large playground made of recycled tires and telephone poles... Now filled in not nearly half way with updated equipment
'new' and 'safer' equipment And at the edge of the grounds...
where gravel turns to grass before meeting a guardrail,
a small and new gazebo dedicated to a former student
who had in previous years fallen victim to death The student who, in addition to the gazebo, has
a young tree on the far side of the school...
a plaque at the base of the trunk

Past the guardrail where tar, this time bordered by
tan cement on either side, branched out on one
of the intersection's turn-offs
to form a space in which a small island of yet more
tan cement resided, various plants in the center Further down the turn-off to the left of the island, past houses
bordering the Blackstone river on the right...
forest before yet more homes on the left An apartment building made of an old mill is the first sign that
the grass and giants of the town closest to the child's
residence is coming to an end The second end of the child's usual foot travelings,
a former firehouse of which the ground level floor is a
family grocer above a basement level pub From here can be seen, more tar and tan cement...
more buildings and houses and apartments
more stores and business

But the child doesn't walk that far,
for she returns to the street where one is able
to call and be called by ones first name She returns to where she and others are surrounded by
great brown and green giants that offer
safety... She returns from where she has gone forth