How beautiful is the innocence of a child?
So lofty in spirits, so in character undefiled.
So pure and untainted are their wants of the world;
But yet how it wishes to see them unfurled.
Ah, to be that free.
To laugh and be honestly happy with no degree,
No constraints, no limitations of their soul.
Youth: our one chance to be whole.
How I would like to be that child
Who runs in the field and falls with consequences mild;
Only to then immediately get back up and continue to play.
If only life could be that easy day by day;
Up and down, up and down.
But alas, we are confined by our sins that drown
Us in ambition, power, lust, and greed;
Things that poison our innocence in thought, word, and deed.
As I reach for it in the high, high tree
I realize its branch is rotten, so I fall to my knees.
Because to strive for this innocence does not belong to me anymore
It belongs to the child and the child is no more.