Lily Pads

There are many places I envision living when I think about having a safe environment to raise a child. I imagine an island where there is not crime; I picture a small town where health-care and education is free-- where all the neighbors know one another and without obligation, keep their eyes on your child-- when your eyes are elsewhere.

I think of a space where playing outside is encouraged and all of the children run in the streets, going from home to home like frogs on lily pads.

As I sit on my make-believe hillside, the sun sets on my imaginary city.

Out of the shadows, as the moon rises to greet me, comes a dark and sinister world, the world which I live in, a world which my mother says...is not worthy of children. I hope she is wrong.