Youthfulness
We were kids born into a life of rules we could not forbid.
Our demons made us tremor at night we could not rid.
Internal wounds and white scars serve as a remembrance of the horrors she did.
Inner flesh reminds us of a troubled lineage our past transgressions hid.
We created a fantasy of fairies, leprechauns, and an imaginary world in our bubble.
When reality popped the magic, this creation of naivete would crumble.
We were a portrait of misfits in a family of dysfunction whose household on the street didn’t fit.
Putting on charades to mask the pain away with skits.
We each had a role to play and in this drama no one could quit.
We were forced to make the narrative stick.
A package of damaged goods — carried our baggage moving from place to place in new neighborhoods.
Shall we pay homage to a past spoken and a future unbroken?
The reckoning has closed and a new awakening has opened.
We would play hide and seek.
We had our safe places we would sneak.
To the world unknown, we mustered the courage to peek.
Now, we’re adults with a vision of gleam.
Hopefulness in our hearts dared to dream.
The bearer of our life — you smothered us in the water, but we learned to swim upstream.
How exhilarating it is to breathe!
Drowning in breathlessness — stuck in the abyss of the river, but the expanse of the sky is less scary than it seems.
On the playground,
dancing to the laughter of our joyful sound,
and the world snatched us of our young age.
Instead of running wild like animals,
like tigers in chains, we were tamed.
Instead of roaming in the dirt and chasing little scoundrels to play,
like monsters under our beds, we would hideaway.
Instead of looking for rainbows,
like clouds storming in, we were gray.
