Eight and nine year olds seem especially concerned with mortality and the ends of things. J, aged 8, asked this question.
I’m just hoping kids this age relish gloomy answers as much as I did when I was 9.
One day there’ll be no humans
One day we’ll all be gone
And when nobody’s counting
Will minutes still go on?
One day, far in the future
There won’t be any clocks
Or timers, or computers
So will the minutes stop?
Will time still be divided
When we are not around?
If trees, with none to hear, fall
Do they still make a sound?
Though time will still continue
With very little fuss
If we’re not there to count them,
The minutes die with us.
Tom Juniper Poetry 