Childhood is Dead

I speak to you today,

readers and listeners,

to idolize;

villainize;

commemorate,

the death of childhood.

That all-encompassing ignorance,

is dead;

forgotten;

with its corpse scattered 

across the country.

This has been the impending course.

Earlier and earlier

the plague known as responsibility

sneaks into the body,

of a child,

through the inhalation of oxygen,

and spreads;

etches itself onto their bones.

It becomes harder and harder to smile

when the days are filled with forceful moans.

I’d give anything to have one more day:

to just wander for a while,

but no adult will approve my loans.