We All Start Out Knowing Magic ~ Robert R. Mccammon, Boy's Life

“See, this is my opinion: we all start out knowing magic.

We are born with whirlwinds, forest fires, and comets inside us.

We are born able to sing to birds and read the clouds
and see our destiny in grains of sand.

But then we get the magic educated right out of our souls.

We get it churched out, spanked out, washed out, and combed out.

We get put on the straight and narrow and told to be responsible.

Told to act our age.

Told to grow up, for God's sake.

And you know why we were told that?

Because the people doing the telling
were afraid of our wildness and youth,
and because the magic
we knew made them ashamed
and sad of what
they'd allowed to wither
in themselves.”

― Robert R. McCammon, Boy's Life