My name is Doug. I’m five years old.
I’m always asking, "What?" or "Why?"
So many things I want to know.
Today, please tell me, “What is time?”

It’s time to stay. It’s time to go.
I hear the word so much.
It’s time for bed. It’s time for lunch.
It’s time for such and such.

But I can’t see time. Time does not smell
And it’s nothing I can touch.
Can someone tell me what it is?
What does it do for us?

I asked my mother – and she said,
“That’s easy, don’t you know.
Light is day and dark is night,
The sun, it comes and goes.

The time it takes to round the sun
Won’t change, or so we’re told.
This happens every single day
And has since days of old.”

I asked my father – and he said,
I thought you knew, my son.
“Time divides the day for us
So we can get things done.

We wake up every morning.
Afternoon’s for work and play.
In the evening, we all settle in…
And the nights we sleep away.

Then I went to ask my sis.
She seems to know a lot.
She said time was, “Really cool”.
“You read it on a watch.”

“Eight o’clock, my school begins.
Friends meet at twelve to eat.
Three-thirty home, six-thirty dinner,
Then at eight I watch TV!”

Now, I’ve seen clocks and watches
With buttons and hands that move.
But I’m not real good with numbers
So I didn’t have a clue.

And what’s this thing about light and dark
With mornings and afternoons?
Maybe my brother Bill will know.
I think I’ll ask him, too.

I asked Bill. He scratched his head.
Said, “Yup, time has many parts.
Days, and weeks, and months and years,
Seconds, and minutes, and hours…

Yesterday’s past, Today’s the present
And tomorrow’s in the future
But if I told you more than that, (he laughed),
I think I’d just confuse ya.”

Golly gee, could this be right?
Time has so many names!
Each one says they know what it is,
But they tell me different things!

There is someone, I haven’t asked.
I’ll bet she’ll tell me true .
Grandma Green knows everything,
And she’ll know this one, too!

I found my Grandma on the porch,
Sittin’ in her rocking chair.
I asked my question, and then I waited,
She’d make this whole thing clear.

“God,” she smiled, “made time for us,
For learnin’ and askin’ why.
So don’t you fret ‘bout what you don’t know
Cause you’ll know it all, in time!”