Innocence

Sweet childhood, a time of ignorant bliss, an enclosed garden of great beauty. When I was a child, this garden was my whole world, and I had nothing to fear. When I was a child, my days stretched on forever, and everything was within my reach. When I was a child, I was bold and filled with bravado, and no one could stand in my way.



But then, I, like a flower, budded, and then bloomed, and my conscience, once as pure as crystal-clear water, had become murkied. I was no longer brave, I was no longer bold, and I learned that nothing was within my reach. I learned that I was only human, and that I was not capable of everything. I learned that the world is filled with strife, and famine, and war, and fear, and that everyone was afraid of each other. Worst of all, I discovered who was my worst enemy: myself.



But, then, if this was not enough, I had to attack the wound, and every last shred I had left of my innocence, and fall in love! Oh, love, how you have opened my eyes to so much pain and toil, corruption and evil. How you have opened my eyes to heart-break and rejection, and how I have opened my eyes and learned that it is not ideal to be in love, and how love is not like the fairytales. To be in love, is to be crazy, to be in love, is to be half-mad, to be in love, is akin to suicide.



How much better it is for our fellow people who do not fall in love! Woe is the day I ever set my eyes on my cherished one, and blew a kiss goodbye to my lost innocence,  for it never to return again! Take a hold of innocence, my little ones, and grasp it in chains, like a master and his slave, for as long as possible. For, everything changes for the worst when it is gone.