Pushing Three

Climb into boyhood over the backs of chairs,
and lurch through sentences into clear speech;
give goals away at the bottom of the stairs,
with solemn logic at a shop beseech;
let your lab. apparatus strew the floor –
a hat, a car, a gun clobbered with string –
at your touch only will it turn to more.
As a black disc turns pick up the tune and sing.
Keep on good terms with the garden if you can:
for each plant trampled on let two survive –
in some extraordinary way you are a man.
Because you learn, because you are alive,
and make mistakes like us, and keep on going,
your mother and I are glad to watch you growing.