Wednesday, July 06, 2005

If You Were Only One Inch Tall...

I'm a camp counsellor at an Islamic summer camp. Yep, the whole deal: whistle hanging from neck, running shoes, and "I don't see a straight line! No budding!" I know some of you didn't think that "Asmaa" and "camp counsellor" could be combined in one sentence, since I seemingly have no nurturing capabilities. But it's working, kind of. The boys in my grade kill me though, they're so misbehaved... There's one boy in my class, Hasan, who's one of the rowdiest among them. And when I say rowdy, I mean "running around screaming kicking and yelling" rowdy. But today, his brother, who has Down Syndrome, came to the camp as well. So Hasan held his brother's hand and took care of him, and played with him for the entire time, calmly. He also protected him from unwanted stares and jokes. It was one of the sweetest things I've ever seen. I read this with my class today. tee hee. One Inch Tall If you were only one inch tall, you'd ride a worm to school. The teardrop of a crying ant would be your swimming pool. A crumb of cake would be a feast And last you seven days at least, A flea would be a frightening beast If you were one inch tall. If you were only one inch tall, you'd walk beneath the door, And it would take about a month to get down to the store. A bit of fluff would be your bed, You'd swing upon a spider's thread, And wear a thimble on your head If you were one inch tall. You'd surf across the kitchen sink upon a stick of gum. You couldn't hug your mama, you'd just have to hug her thumb. You'd run from people's feet in fright, To move a pen would take all night, (This poem took fourteen years to write-- 'Cause I'm just one inch tall). Shel Silverstein

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Gawd, yeah. Kids can really surprise you sometimes.

And - uh ... I'm the first comment. I'm the best.

Jackie Bolen said...

You are pretty brave being a camp counsellor. I am surprised you still have time to blog! Have a great summer.

Anonymous said...

That's such a wonderful thing about Hasan. Haha i was wondering about the summer camp counselor thingy, if it was an Islamic one or not, thanks for clearing it up.
Khuda Hafiz

Anonymous said...

>You couldn't hug your mama, you'd >just have to hug her thumb.

If you were 1 inch tall then would not your mama be short too?

bah humbug! you'd expect a 5+ foot woman to give birth to a 1 inch tall person?

highly illogical james....

Anonymous said...

salaam lol cool poem :D

Modest Hijabi said...

I'll read your post later. First I need a talk with you. add me to msn. Modest_hijabi@hotmail.com

Anonymous said...

hello hello hello

you grrr'ed, so I just had to come...

missing me so much?! ;)

AP said...

In gr12 we did a little bit of physics on 1-inch people. Their ability to lift weights with respect to their body weight would be superhuman(comparatively speaking), they'd need to eat every couple minutes or they'd die of hunger, etc.

What major are you?

Asmaa said...

Destiny: grrr

AP: let me enjoy my poem without complicating it too much. arrgh physics! my majors are Sociology and English. Which is one of the reasons that I enjoy stupid things :D

Anonymous said...

wa alaikum salaam :D thnx for the u know what :D

Nauman said...

An interesting poem indeed...

Anonymous said...

salaam popped in 2 ure blog