A timeline has a beginning and an end
The story of our lives as simple as a sentence
Buried in the overall story of life on earth
To be represented on the wall of a child's room
What direction should the progression go
Beginning with the formation of our planet
Or starting from the present traveling back
Or built from the bottom up in layers like sediment
If you walk down a long hallway marking time
With the years tracked on both walls beside you
One will go left to right and the other right to left
And whichever way it goes the meaning is clear
But if you made a certain plan for the graphic
According to what makes good sense to you
Thinking it was your choice to make
A different direction would be hard to take
So I listened and talked with my friend
To sort out his feelings and then let them go
To get back to enjoying his fun grandpa project
How to teach science to a young child
My own timeline has had its moments
When a similar turn of events upset me
When expectation becomes disappointment
The hurt can surface like a violation
There's something in my childhood
That makes me prone to such reactions
That the adult must learn to let subside
To return to living here in the present
