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My heart mourned long its innocence
What seems an age ago,
A carefree spirit burdened down
By what I came to know.

I learned about a fate called Death
Which I could not endure.
All Life extinguished in its grasp--
Disease without a cure.

This knowledge hurt at such an age,
Still innocent at eight.
My death became my biggest fear,
And hardest to abate.

So with flashlight and plastic gun,
I waited anxiously,
Snug in my bed, afraid, but set
To fight Mortality.

Copyright © 2000 by Randal A. Burd, Jr.

Publications: Owings Mills, MD: The Silence of Infinity, The International Library of Poetry, 2000

Author's Note: Poems viewed here are the latest versions and are not necessarily word-for-word as published.