I Will

I will

Chase a crumpled napkin across the school

When the wind has blown it away

 Because God knows I'm no litterbug.

I will 

Hear a word I don't know

And never ask what it means

On the off-chance it might turn out to be a cuss.

I will

Never watch the show you've been raving about

Until I have my mother's permission

And I'll never get it because I will be too scared to ask.

I will

Cry at the ASCPA commercials.

I will

Sit by myself at lunch

If the air is full of cusswords

And the tables stacked with things I'd rather not have rubbing off on me.

I will

Find you in the bathroom when you're crying

And even if you're full of the nasty lunch table traits and words

I will ask you what's the matter.

I will 

Help you whenever I can,

But please don't start to love me

Because I will do the same for everyone else.

I will

Never let go of Mommy's hand.

I will 

Look at you drawings and stories

Tell you they're wonderful, because they are

Even if they scare me.

I will

Watch you do things with your life

And I won't judge or say anything at all

But I'll talk with the part of you that stays and will never leave.

I will

Stick my nose in too many books

Full of too many themes and too many lessons

With too much caution about what in them could scar me.

I will

Not always get your jokes.

I will 

Go to high school the same way.

I will

Enter the world the same way.

I will

Be strange.

I will

Be different.

I will

Sometimes be annoying know-it-all tattletale innocent crybaby drama queen fool

But if you think I won't resist if you try to change me,

You should know

I will.