Babies and Kittens and Puppies
 

What is it about babies and kittens and puppies
That turns adults into goofy-eyed crazies?
Whether canine or feline or human
What makes young ones so much fun?

So new to this world in which we dwell
They attract us as magnets do steel compel
What infectious disease do they infuse
Which we are utterly unable to refuse?

What do they have that we have not?
What do they give which can't be bought?
What is that magical something
That these tiny newborns bring?

Could it be their bright-eyed innocence?
Their absence of guile or pretense?
No. For a dog innocent will ever be
But a dog does not delight as does a . . . puppy.

Perhaps it is their perfect purity
That sets our burdened hearts free?
No. For a cat will never be impure
But only kittens our affection secure.

It's simply that they are born with a full store
Of that which adults have less of than before
And makes kittens pounce and puppies chase their tails
And babies leave happy goo-goo ga-ga trails.

They've no motive nor reason when they arrive
Other than the mere fact that they're . . . alive
The supra-natural gift they employ?
Undimmed by life, it's pure unadulterated joy.

September 2004