I Wonder

What a wonderful gift we’ve been given! Inquisitive minds. Brains with the capacity to wonder. Where would we be without asking “why”?

I wonder why the gentle dawn
returns to signal a new day’s birth?
I wonder why stars illumine the night,
casting soft light on the sleeping earth?
Do you ever wonder about simple things?
Why a grackle even tries to sing?
The way life would be if I were King?
Why the opposite of pong is, surprisingly, ping?
I wonder.

Can you imagine no wondering minds?
Will we someday assume we know it all?
The ebb and the flow of wisdom and truth?
Why up is up and the stock market falls?
I’m sure I will never “know it all.”
My brain is too short, knowledge too tall.
Who’s the mysterious man who lives down the hall?
I wonder.

My mind, it seems, was made for the search.
To ask. To quest. To wonder “why”?
I can’t imagine the moon and the stars,
seeing the heavens, yet not willing to try
to fathom the reasons why we exist.
I don’t mean to offend, but I insist
that wondering is inherent and we must not resist
the urge to know, the need to persist.
I wonder.

Do you wonder, sometimes, about simple things?
About how many feet in that ball of string?
Or, why deep-throated bullfrogs decide to sing
just when I get to that part of my dream
where I rescue the damsel in great distress
and she pins a medal on my manly chest?
Why do those bullfrogs always ruin the best
part of my nap, my afternoon rest?
Do you ever wonder? Ever question “why”?

Me, too.