Only when the poignance
Of childhood fades
To a long remembered dream
Are we free to be
What we are now,
Glancing only seldom
Backward to then
When our universe
Was both too large
And too small
For us to now comprehend
Without the too much pain
It cost us
To be children.

When innocence
Gave way to overwhelming
Immensity of guilt,
And we learned
That the world
Was the oyster -
Of adults.
And we must wait
To brand the world MINE
Till we were 21
So that overnight
We become Gods and Goddesses
Or kings and queens - rulers at least
Of the pantry
Of the banister
Of locked drawers
And hidden treasures
Chained in big words.
Rulers of the whole realm
Of desire - And especially of children.

And after that the dark
Of last horizon
Perplexity
Complexity
With garnered guilt
We stand before that dark
And yield to expediency -
Necessity -
Grit our teeth
And embark
Upon the quest
Of what we lost
When we became
Not children anymore.

Dated 9/23/1982