Innocence Lost
Innocence Lost
A tender tendril groping for support,
Clinging and climbing but not quite
leaving the earth
divine angels above showered blessings
as she took birth.
Innocence, trust and wonder
in those large round eyes
shone like diamonds far beyond
any wealth or price.
Cooing, gurgling and often crying
she made sure she got
all attention worth trying.
And then all this started changing
slowly, very slowly the world touched her.
Kisses, caresses, cuddles changed meaning.
Groping and pawing she could not decipher,
parents, siblings, friends and folks
rarely sincere mostly feigning
ideas, orders, comments and jokes,
sugar-coated poisons when they spoke.
Voices, eyes, hands no longer good in feel--
some would hurt, and others
that were downright heel.
Suppressed anger, dirty feelings and the shame
made her feel guilty and full of blame.
She cocooned herself from the world around
yet looking for support
that was nowhere to be found.
Not mother, father, any could give
the support she needed now to live.
The tender tendril slowly hardened up
and turned to thorny callous stuff.
Those wondrously luminous, innocent eyes
started looking down,
dark and brooding, in denial
she now spoke with a frown.
The art of lying slowly poisoned her tongue
as she started looking
older than a child that young.
Her wealth of innocence by strangers plundered,
and near ones also each tearing asunder
the faith and love
she hungered for
and wanted to give,
with nobody caring
how she loved or lived.
Her innocence lost,
through what she’d heard, felt and been--
life became a nightmare
no child should ever have seen.