Drawing Day Poem by Jim Yerman

You may not find this on the calendar but today is special anyway
June 7th every year is known as Drawing Day.

For anyone whose ever drawn and animal, a tree, a bus
This day is set aside to celebrate the drawer in all of us.

When a child draws an out of proportion person with giant hands or feet
People hold up that drawing and say how talented...how sweet.

But when an adult draws giant hands or makes one arm a little too long
People give him funny looks and assume there's something wrong.

When I was little my drawings were cute, or so my parents thought.
But my drawing talent never progressed the older that I got.

For years when our kids were little every vacation we ever took
I would draw a cartoon every night and we'd keep them in a book.

I'd draw a picture depicting a funny situation then add a sentence or paragraph
But more often than not it was the drawings themselves that made my family laugh.

They'd see my oddly misshaped figures, "Who's that person? " They would plea.
"My eyes are too big, and where's my nose...I know that can't be me."

I tried to explain I was like Picasso and my drawings reflected that
But they'd reply, "I can't imagine Picasso would make my head that fat! "

"Dad, you drew me without a neck and my legs look so arthritic."
I often wondered, "Did Picasso have such an array of critics? "

But as time marches ever onward and our memories begin to fade
Every now and then we pull out those old books and browse the drawings I once made.

Oh we still laugh at the contorted figures but I don't find it demeaning
Because somehow over the years they've acquired a different meaning.

It seems the older we get and we realize life's moments pass by in a blur
We need to stop and remember how important those moments were.

The drawings themselves become secondary as we chuckle our way through them
And everyone, including me, is simply glad I drew them.