Children

box

DR SCOTT SIMPSON

Children

we think of children as

small adults

and in some ways, they are

little feet, little hands

little heads, little hearts

all the things we have later in life

only smaller

bite-sized like the candy bars

at Halloween time

just like the big ones

only small enough

you can eat twenty at one sitting

but experience adds new tendons

and nerve endings

trauma creates connective tissue

often scarred-- less flexible

old friends lend their words

sometimes their faces

relationships gone bad

embed warning signs

behind our eyes

sometimes blinding us

children have none of that

they have partial bodies

that seem complete

but haven’t yet grown the organs

that will be most central

later in life

oh, we all need our stomachs

of course

we need our colons

our livers

our lungs

we even need our spleens

and appendices

these things however are vehicles

WHERE THE GROWTH BEGINS

for us to develop what we

really need

relationship, identity, love, opinion

passion, bias

and once we’ve grown those

we forget where they came from

-- they came from our bodies

because our bodies are dying

and we like to think our opinions

relationships, loves, biases, passions

are eternal

children become aware of their bodies

and all parts are equal

my nose as valuable as my toe

my belly as beautiful as my arm

my finger as fun as my penis

but when adult trauma collides

with the body of a child

scarred identity latches itself

to unscarred flesh

children may sprout webs

of cancerous fiber

linking awkwardly

body parts, concepts, people, fears

creating singular words

or smells or sounds

that leverage a body response

hyperventilation, hives, blackouts, paralysis

the incapacity to form words, self-harm

the human body will make its journey

among pleasures and dangers

the child must be accompanied

by trustworthy human beings

but trust and love don’t circumnavigate pain

pain is part of love

fear, the flipside of trust

but trust and love allow the child’s body

to grow love and trust

DR SCOTT SIMPSON

and the capacity to pass

them on

WHERE THE GROWTH BEGINS