354. Innocence Lost: Sad New Life

There is your sweet prom date,
Up there, high on the stage,
For all the world to see
What you saw before them all.

Those cute girlish giggles,
The shyness as she tried to conceal
With those cute little fingers
What the world gazes upon today.

That now damnable childish laughter
That once was all your own,
Forever belongs to them now,
Forever tarnished by this tempting world.

Gone is that girlish innocence,
Gone is that long, beautiful green satin gown,
Replaced with abhorred innocence lost,
Replaced with nothing more than all too transparent lace.

So short a time has passed,
Not even two years fully gone by,
Since cuddly teddy bears were exchanged
For the stage, for the lights, for it all.

Turn away now, my sullen friend,
And lament for the years to come,
As the innocence you fought to end
Has not only faded, but now, is completely gone.

353. Conversations That Will Never Be

How I wish that I could have
A conversation today
With all of those who I knew
In that long ago yesterday.

How smart we thought we were
During the days of youth,
Hearts on our sleeves
Our emotions our only truth.

To sit and reflect upon it all,
To go back and choose again.
To speak my words of today
To those I knew back when.

I’d share smiles with foes,
Mend fences torn down,
Repair all of the woes
I left scattered on the ground.

But fleeting are the years
And while intentions abound,
Final conversations have been had,
No way to turn time around.

So, in my mind these conversations
Will forever and always remain,
Until the years take my brain,
Or perhaps, one day, our paths cross again…