The Big Question by Kevin Ahern

The Big Question

“Rain falls down,” she said to me
“That’s very easy to see”
“It guess it’s due to gravity”

I told her she was right as rain
And I admired her little brain
But then she asked me to explain

“If rain comes falling through the air”
“And covers the ground everywhere”
“How did it got there?”

I said, “It’s very simple, lass”
“The clouds contain the liquid mass”
“And then it falls on us, en masse”

“Oh, no,” she said, her face in frown
“I understand how rain gets down”
“To the ground”

“But for it to be up in the sky”
“I do not understand why”
“The rain all got up there so high”

With that I felt a sudden sting
That sometimes comes when answering
A child who thinks you know everything

But my mind was blank, I thought, “uh oh”
I couldn’t lie, but did not know
Change the subject? Perhaps lie low?

Silence revealed my dilemma so
She said to me with eyes aglow
“That’s OK, Daddy. Mom will know”

by Kevin Ahern