Toys vs. Tools

You sit in front of your toybasket.

I plop in front of my toolbox.

The two are not so different.


Toys are tools by which we enjoy

the world;

tools are toys which we employ

to build the world.

Both should be satisfying.


But when you get older 

you will find few people feel this way.

Toys are freedom

they say,

and tools are chains.


Toys are happy

they say

and tools are sad.


Find the similarity in them:

tools can be happy,

toys can be sad.

Consider your tools toys,

and your toys tools.

Show all the world its secret joys,

and call out its hidden fools.