Innocence

Soft as a white tuft of dandelion puff
That a breeze picks up to examine,
Caress, then set down in delicate balance
Upon a blade of grass, you fled from me,
As quietly as a whisper of regret.

Like that lingering patch of April snow
That's there in the morning, yet gone by night.
Like the dew that glistens in the first light
Of a summer day, then flees before the heat,
You slipped away, along with childhood's wonder.

You didn't slam the door in a white hot rage
Or punctuate your decision to depart
With an explosion of recriminations.
It wasn't a memory milestone moment
Such as the loss of one's virginity.

I looked for you one day and discovered you'd left.
My sand castle of boyish illusions had been levelled
Beneath an all-engulfing tide of experience.
The leaders that I'd trusted to clear my path had
Lined their pockets and let brush devour the trail.

Our Nation's laws that I'd been taught to revere
Have been forged by corrupt black robed judges
Into the chains of greedy sweat-shop overseers.
My God has become a "Bogey-man" tale whose hell
Is used as "muscle" in evangelical shakedowns.

Love proved the cruellest disappointment of all.
The bright flame of reverent adoration
That I tended when I was its worshipful acolyte
Dimmed to cynicism as I saw love sold on sidewalks
Or dangled to peddle items from beer to mouthwash.

So Irretrievable is innocence now
That when I walk the woods to pluck at twigs of solace,
I can hear the frightened heartbeats in the burrows,
Sense the predator, and smell the musty decay of death.
Although I seek it, even Nature offers no solace,
So irretrievable is innocence now.