I was a child.
I vowed to remain a child.
I dreaded the fact that I had to be an adult.
Adults take life too seriously and make it so complicated.
They do not play, and laugh, even sleep like children.
But, I had to be an adult, and I dreaded it.
As I grew in height and weight,
I forced myself not to grow out of my child-like ways.
The world had other ideas,
It took me to several places, and
It knocked me hard on the floor;
Scrubbing me in pain to erode my innocence.
Did I survive? If I did, what has remained of me?
I suddenly see the world for the first time.
I have seen it before, but it feels like the first time.
It feels like I’m having my first experiences in life again.
I know I am, because I can remember the past ones like
I am in a dream – remembering the past and how I felt at the moment.
It is a reincarnation; a rebirth back into the world,
As though I have been given a second chance from imminent doom.
I see the world again; for the first time.
I look at it with the innocent eyes, with a mind full of experience.
I plead for mercy;
I beg the world to have pity on my innocence.
But if it doesn’t,
I will not care; I will not give it up.
From her book of poems – A Little Understanding
Poems from the End of Childhood to the Beginning of Adulthood