The Value of Children

Insolent horrors of drudging filth

Bemoaning their daily lives

They feed on tears and wails of contempt

Oh, children, I do so despise

Complaining most often of all the ways

The world's so malicious and wrong

To get them to bed is torture severe

And my ears do so bleed at their song

Oh to mature and thus never complain

As adults who have wisened so much

I lay in my pain as I'm trying to sleep

Bemusing to have them for lunch

Such burden doth bring a child-filled life

No peace has been had for years

Their many complaints at the hardness of life

Has left me drowning in beers

If only a minute their poisonous words

And banshee-like screams could cease

They'd see all the comfort their first-world doth bring

And allow me some most-needed peace

Oh please make it stop what powers may be

For this I can no longer bare

My suffering's reached the peak of its limit

And I've none left to rip out my hair!

Woe is me for the children will not stop their cries

Woe is me for I'm going insane

The bantering woes of the children disturb

My utmost of quality brain

Make them shush, make them silent,

And ever so still and quiet

I'm flailing my arms in the depths of despair

I can no longer handle their riots!

I sit as I fume and foam at the mouth

I think I have made my point known

Kids are revolting and grown-ups are pure

Thank goodness for all I have grown

Now pittering pats of a tiny creature

Are heard as it climbs on the bed

Smiling as wide as the ocean is deep

She rests on me her sweet head

The distant moans melt and drown

As clarity comes to inspire

For all of their costs their value is more

Once again my heart is afire

The darkest night stands not a chance

To the spark of a child's eye

Their smiles are dew to a joy-parched soul

With every new thing they imbibe

With no provocation they run to your side

And hug your thick leg with might

They joyfully shake with hope most profound

At a cookie or some small delight

What brightness they bring to a cynical heart

And jealousy brought to a miser

To love and to sing with simplest of ease

Oh what's lost as we grow ever wiser

So long as the screams close not our ears

And the messes refrain to blind

We can hear the sound of invaluable joy

And see all their beauty unwind