Lost Childhood

It is no matter how or why we are obscure

We yearn to be a step ahead, respected and mature

Yet while we grow we grasp at our disappearing youth

Remaining couched in childhood as we grow long in the tooth

 

We hold the things we value from the haze of long ago

And wish the past still with us, as something we could know

We sneer at others' childish whims, whilst wishing for our own

And seek the wisdom of our age when we are beached alone

 

Perhaps towards the end, the mantle casts its shadow

Cloaking our belief in what we thought we had to know

Showing us, in retrospect, those big mistakes we made

And that youth we thought we always had, which left along the way