Childhood's End

A heartfelt laughter for the silliest

Of things from a child's lips

Is like adoring a blooming flower.

It is undoubtedly a celestial form

Of God from the Heavens above.

The same laughter for the tiniest

Of things from a grown-up is indisputably

Smeared with contrived mockery -

With a laughter suppressed by the lips.

The joy of childhood is not just

A seed of innocence planted at birth,

But it is in the virtue of living by it

Instead of shying away.

The easiness of simplicity is made

Uneasy by the complexity of smugness.

It is the malice that spreads depravity

Until decadence is established as an ideal.

Innocence is the freedom to be naïve,

But willing to taste the nectar of pristine

Life all around us; but not scathing it

By wearing the crown of ignorance.

The idiocy of petty fights to win over

The balance instituted by natural order

Is argued instead of dismissing it

For glorious abuses and selfish exploits.

Instead of chewing the gift of the present,

The known past and the unknown future

Stir up distress in the unconscious smile,

Even though it is the symbol of serenity.

The pretense of adulthood is a vermin

Of misery and despair to innocence;

Sadly it is nourished to a thriving child

Until the virtue is lost into oblivion.

There is a child in each one of us;

Why is it lost in the journey through time?

Aren't we all the children of God?

Aren't we all?

Art by Lina Abojaradeh

May 27, 2021