At Childhood's End

Poemata XC

Love us as we were / it’s how we will always be / even when we’re not.

Since more serious things must come
Let us rejoice while we are young;
While youth's flower is blooming bright
He who plays yet plays aright--
Storms will come which rock that boat
And render us a tattered coat
Who once were smooth and whole and new
Rough and torn and wrinkled through;

Remember us as we were then
In days of innocence to spend
Without care, without thought--
When there was no is or ought;
A great sea waits for us to cross
A great work for to suffer loss;
Remember us, as we were then
Not as now, at childhood's end.

Author’s Note: This poem was written a number of years ago, but has not been published until now.