Apostasy I found him lurking deep inside A young boy so open and free I found him in a summer night's magic The young boy that once was me In a flash he leaped from my body And in consternation we stood eye to eye The startling embodiment of my sunken memories The fragile beast so innocent and shy For frozen minutes we stared in disbelief At one entity divided into two He who looked into mirrors and asked why And I who now look and ask who As I gazed into his unscared eyes The forgotten faces rolled past like a dream In shuddering delight, I felt the gleeful mirth Of the trickling brook now flowing a stream In reflective joy I could not help but smile At the bemussled mop on his sun baked head And then suddenly he began to laugh at me But then so solemnly straightened and said " When changes called, you left me standing As you blazed away from the clumsy, freckled clan Within weeks you were gone forever As you raced toward the mold of western man In a new world of marvelous pleasures You silently rejoiced at having said good bye But you suffered a great loss when you flew away For when you left you quit asking Why You now cringe when labeled a child That stinging word becomes a nagging foe But when you left, you left your imagination And without it, the creative currents can never flow Without the precious imagination of a child Your own mind will slowly cease to exist You become only a collection of other people's thoughts The rains of intelligence become but a fine mist In the name of glorious manhood Your inner feelings you must suppress You now live in fear of being yourself For a tearful face can never impress So caught in the frantic race for success You've forgotten what its like to play For without the rewards of a childish mind The happiness you've heard of will always slip away " As he spoke these words my mind opened up And I understood the emptiness floating inside I saw before me what I had so suddenly abandoned And what I had been forced to hide Overwhelmed, I reached out to embrace him But he leaped back inside on reality's chime Lost forever within my nameless spirit Lost forever in the nebulous abyss of time |