PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-01-sj

01 - I was asked what I wanted to be.
      I told them I'd tell them tomorrow.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-02a-sj

02a - Going home, I kicked up rocks and dirt
      that filled the air with butterflies.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-02b-sj

02b - I held a handful of river water and
      let it go above my head like rain.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-03-sj

03 - I played hopscotch in my footprints.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-04-sj

04 - I made a grass mustache, a dandelion
       beard and a bird nest toupee.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-05a-sj

05a - The wind turned me into a dancer.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-05b-sj

05b - The sky turned into a lake and I was
      a fish swimming in it.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-06a-sj

06a - I double-dutched with strands of rainbow.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-06b-sj

06b - I fastened the strands to my hair and my
      toes and became a fiddle that sunbeams
      played.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-07-sj

07 - At sunset I was a firefighter and squirted
      water at the sun until it turned into the moon
      and until it was so dark the stars couldn't
      play hide-and-seek anymore.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-08-sj

08 - By the time I got home, I knew what I wanted
      to be.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-09-sj

09 - I want to be big but not so big that a mountain
      seems small. I want to be strong but not so
      strong that a kite seems weak.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-10-sj

10 - I want to be old but not so old that Mars and
      Jupiter seem young. I want to be fast but not
      so fast that lightning seems slow.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-11a-sj

11a - I want to be beautiful but not so beautiful that
      a train moving in the sun like a metal peacock's
      glowing feather on tracks that are like stilts a
      thousand miles long laid down like a ladder
      up a flat mountain (wow!) seems dull.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-11b-sj

11b - (see 11a)

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-12-sj

12 - I want to be green but not so green that I can't
      also be purple.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-13-sj

13 - I want to be tall but not so tall that nothing is
      above me. Up must still be somewhere, with clouds
      and sky.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-14a-sj

14a - I want to be quiet but not so quiet that nobody can
      hear me. I also want to be sound, a whole orchestra...

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-14b-sj

14b - Sometimes I want to be just the triangle, a tinkle
      that sounds like an itch.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-15-sj

15 - I want to be still but not so still that I turn into
      a mannequin or get mistaken for a tree.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-16-sj

16 - I want to be in motion but I want the ants in my pants
      to sometimes take a vacation. Sometimes I want to be slow
      but not so slow that everything passes me by.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-17-sj

17 - Sometimes I want to be small but not so small that I am
      easy to miss. About the size of the thought of a bud
      before it opens and becomes a universe in which bees
      orbit like planets.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-18-sj

18 - Sometimes I want to be invisible but not gone.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-19a-sj

19a - I want to be a leaf that is part canoe riding the water
      as if it's a liquid horse.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-19b-sj

19b - Sometimes I want to be weightless and floating on air,
      able to fly...

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-20-sj

20 - I want to be a language, a way to share thoughts. What my
      grandmother says when she speaks in tongues. That's also
      music, I want to be my other grandmother's hands when she
      signs, when she seems to be blessing everything.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-21-sj

21 - I want to be all the people I know, then I want to know more
      people so I can be them too. Then they can all be me. I want
      to be a new kind of earthquake, rocking the world as if it's
      a baby in a cradle.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-22-sj

22 - I want to be eyes looking, looking everywhere.
      I want to be ears hearing, hearing everything.
      I want to be hands touching, touching everything
      I want to be mouth tasting, tasting everything.
      I want to be heart feeling, feeling everything.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-23-sj

23 - I want to be life doing, doing everything.
      That's all.

PinkneyJerry-IWantToBe-Index1-sj