simple musings

= the foolish youth =

When I was a child

nothing could scare me,

save the monster underneath my bed,

and I was a fool

but I was a courageous fool,

whereas now I am alone

and lost in the space in between.

Each summer I went to Veneto

to live with my Italian uncle;

he was eccentric, the poor brute,

flapping his fisherman arms

as he yelled out of his orange house.

"Look at the sardines my boy! 

Watch as they fly through the sky!"

and he would sob

because there was nothing above us

apart from blue and grey,

and an expanse of clouds.

I would lie in his hammock

on sweaty, windburnt days

wondering why I couldn't sleep

and wake to a world of wonders -

the world of adults.

And now I do nothing but sigh

as each moment passes by

because I remember my selfish ways:

how I used to long for my childhood to disappear

how I kissed goodbye to golden days

how I left behind everything

that I wish for today.