The World of Fantasy

I thought highly of my skill at parenting

Showing my child reality was wise

I spared him from fantasy,  unrelenting

In my efforts to portray truth before his eyes

So there was no mention of Santa, or elf or a fairy

No presents left under the Christmas tree

Fantasies are futile, reality can be scary

Facing it early,  he would more equipped be

To survive in this world, and success achieve-

This is what I had assumed throughout

With strong conviction I continued to believe

That I was raising a mature individual, no doubt..

**

The turning-point came to me one day

When my child picked out a book extraordinary

Despite my aversion to fantasy, I could not say

That “Alice in Wonderland” was forbidden territory

As we turned its pages together, one by one

Amazed was I by my child’s transformation

His imagination ran wild, in every direction

He conjured up stories testing my comprehension.

Enchanted by this tale he made an effort

To read all the words, and sharpened his skills

I then realized, shaken out of my zone of comfort

He had learnt quite a bit in the midst of these thrills-

Seeing his eyes light up with wonder

I realized how myopic my vision had been

So together our duo decided to plunder

Treasures of mythical variety previously unseen

I discovered the joy of losing myself in

A world fabricated out of imagination

And the deeper we continued to delve in

The more it came to me as a revelation-

Instead of teaching my child as I thought

My child was the teacher, and I the taught!