Young minds may ask questions to which the mind is not ready to completely understand. As parents, or grandparents, we need to understand what their young minds can handle, and this poem is one that helps to pass along a simple answer (to something that is actually pretty complex).

---

Why is the Sky Blue?

By Matthew Mansfield

It is to me a curious thing
Why the sky above is blue and not green?

Grass is not blue because it is green
And the dirt is not blue, from what I have seen

Why cannot blue be the color of skin?
Is not its color good enough for my kin?

So what is a child of today to do?
Perhaps turn to an adult to find a clue

To my father I ask as he works on the car
“I am changing the oil I cannot reason that far!”

I cannot ask of a sister or brother,
I think a good source would be my mother

“I am putting the baby down to sleep,
As I have told you before your shoes off the carpet keep!”

Grandpa setting on the living room chair
Please answer my question before I pull out my hair

Both my parents are far too busy for me
You got it my friend, come and sit on my knee

As questions have answers so this one must, too
Let me begin in a place that might make sense to you

In order for us to stay on the ground
The earth continues to spin round and round

This spinning keeps us to the floor just right
But how then would each breath as they might

This breathing requires that this spinning sphere be shielded
So our Father in heaven a large bubble he yielded

To the bubble He spoke,
“Surround this planet so my children may live”
As to earth his children did He give

Why blue did He choose as he wrapped it there?
It just happens to be the color of air

As you look to the sky this bubble you see
Its beautiful color the same as the sea

This color is His way of showing He’s there
He stained the sky blue so that you might have air