Orson Awesome

For my grandson, 1 year old

Say you were recently born
And still lived inside a mango
But you were also the most intrepid explorer monkey
And each of your fingers was a different color
And you could finger paint the world 
And of course you knew the abracadabras for every shut thing         

Say you loved veggies with beautiful singing voices
And your first ziggy-zaggy steps were a flying leap for mankind
And you thought your name was Awesome  
And books were your best friends even in the dark

Say you were just-because loved by your momma and poppa and Abuela
And nobody knew about the magic carpet of your dreams
(except Abuelo)
And you could fly around the world meeting each and every one-by-one
And you could kiss your own bellybutton in the bathtub
And stack all first things next to their names and knock the tower down

Say your first sayings were historic babblings for world peace 
And your elbows had two minds of their own
And Fear feared you because you were the bravest brave on Copley Street
And you could crack the sky with your cries for justice

 
You’d be Orson and Orson would be you
          
Justly Orson
Muchly Orson

Orson Awesome!

                                                            -- New York, December 17, 2011
  

2 comments:

Bronwyn Melville said...

Oh Robert!!
This is so beautiful! It's like reading a fresh tilled garden
while eating a peach

the thrones the fall before said...

So I really think this is a fantastic piece of writing.

However, I definitely feel like the text treatment really takes away from the work - at first I almost didn't want to read it. Not that any text treatment would be bad, but the font/color combinations of this particularly make me think of irritating chain emails, or the internet in the 90s.

If you were going for colorful/childish/etc, I would suggest handwriting it - maybe using crayons and markers, actual kid stuff - and varying up your handwriting at different parts, then scanning and posting that. The variation of the letters is something a typeface can't replicate.

Otherwise, I would just leave it in plain text. The reader/viewer has two choices - to see it either as an art treatment (if you do something visual) or as a literary treatment. In this instance, I had to force myself to ignore the visuals to really appreciate the writing.

Anyway, font/colors aside, this was a joy to read.