poem of the day 01.14.13

the precious child’s voice

the little girl sitting across from me

is singing with a voice so terrible and off-key

that it is making my eyes water

i wish that her mother would tell her to please stop

instead of smiling at her

encouraging her

telling her, good job, dear

look, i know that it’s frowned upon

in today’s society

to break a child’s spirit

and tell them that they are no good at something

but sometimes a little honesty goes a long way

at the very least turn the child on to something else

like ballet or accounting

so that she’s not wasting her time

don’t sit there like some proud fool

giving false hope to such acute and glaring mediocrity

sub-mediocrity actually

but that won’t happen on this bus

and soon the child is on to another song

her precious child’s voice warbling some top 40 crap

with the same cadence as a cat drowning in boiling water

while her mother smiles at me

and i do the only thing

a sensible man like me can do in this situation

i put on my headphones

and turn on my magic music machine

to listen to someone else who sings so badly

that they pay them millions of dollars

to do so.