If You Asked Me To Play

A poem about childlike play, wonder and adulthood

I don’t know if this counts as a poem, I think of it more as a stream of thought. I was on my lunch break one day after spending hours staring at a laptop screen feeling quite empty and grey and decided to sit in a park for a bit.

A group of primary school children filtered in and just began playing. I don’t think they knew each other, but they made friends. Some were afraid of the heights, but they still tried the equipment. Others were lost in their own world having just as much fun. This amazed me. The childlike simplicity. No spreadsheets, no deadlines, no algorithms - just play. You don’t have to teach a child to play, but it’s crazy that we have to teach adults to remember how.

This “poem” was the thoughts that came to my mind that day where I realised I forgot how to play.

Original poem by Sakina Sule Ali

If you asked me to play

I’d ask you how

I’d wonder who with

And I wouldn’t begin without a plan

I would evaluate how it would progress me in my career

I would calculate how much of my time it would take

I would calculate the risk of jumping too high or falling too hard

I’d try to find a friend

But feel too shy to speak to someone new

So I’d try to play on my own

While cringing at how I’m being viewed

But if you asked a child to play

Their answer wouldn’t be yes, it wouldn’t be ok

They would simply continue as they were

Because they would have already been doing it all day