Sweet In a Sense

Delighted giggles of frisky little girls,

Tears of joy like falling pearls,

The toothless smile on a baby’s face,

Pure as Christmas’ first snowflake.

Hasty glances, quickly withdrawn,

The thumping of hearts in a crazy dance,

The chance locking of startled eyes,

Averted again with the shyest of smiles.

The world through the eyes of a three year old

A million new places and discoveries to unfold;

Storming curiosity of what is not known

Fear and trepidation, this tempest has blown.

Uncertain steps into the Big Bad World.

Oblivious of evil and death and sorrow,

The prodding of fire, the smell of burnt flesh,

Widening eyes at horrors beyond one’s guess.

So soft, naïve and vulnerable

A sea-creature without a shell; susceptible

Tossed around in the crashing waves,

Will it survive? One cannot say.

The dawn of a realization,

Humiliation and frustration,

In the face of grim reality, a resolution is formed

And then and only then, does the storm seem calmed.

The creation of an exterior,

A shell, a fortress, impenetrable

And believed to be hidden deep within,

The fragments of what one’s soul was, untouched by sin.

But is it really there?

Or is it just a ghost so fair,

That convinces us to believe, that beneath our shallow layer,

There is something for which we live.

Something still pure and unblemished,

That which is naked and beyond pretense,

But is it just hidden away or has it vanished?

Where, oh, where is our Innocence?