Little Fears
By John Herlihy

Little fears have their way
Of seeming big with too much to say.
To their childhood fears, children succumb
Until they are shaken up and feel numb.
Little fears don’t amount to much,
They have no name, just such and such.

Moody shadows on the wall at night,
Tree branches inducing a sudden fright.
The night itself presents an incredible array,
With tiny stars in promenade on the Milky Way.
Then there is the utter darkness all night to endure,
Until daylight returns our confidence to restore.

What about the sound of that creak that needs repair,
Ghosts and goblins after you climbing up the stairs,
To seize you by the throat ready to give you a start,
You feel a tremendous pounding in your tender heart.
And what about the fear when your brother says boo,
You tremble like an autumn leaf without having a clue.

They are just little children on their own,
Having a taste of the world, earth sewn.
There was a time when they couldn’t even crawl,
They just laid in your arms and started to bawl.
They learned to stand up with a few words to say,
Step by step in life, they will find their own way.

The little fears we experience in our childhood,
They have now given up playing with my head.
They have finally departed in disgrace instead.
To be replaced by much larger fears beyond our years,
The monsters of our childhood have given up the ghost.
It’s the big fears of adulthood that now frighten us most.