The Inner Child
Where IS she?
Hiding in the margins,
lurking in murky nether regions
or fully camouflaged in plain sight
to the point of invisibility.
Does she have a voice atall?
Is she relevant to an alien world?
She used to hang around
angling for attention, for safety,
comfort, warmth, aching for love
- despite not knowing what it was,
beyond a nebulous dream.
Has she shrivelled to a nothing,
lost heart, purpose or hope
and withdrawn, given up?
Or does she still persist, remain
awaiting the day and call
for recognition, reconciliation
and coming home?
Even if the childish naïveté and trust
got somewhat weathered, battered
yet retaining its carefree freshness and purity of intent.
Or waiting for that elder innocence
of senile forgetting and review,
when action and option are over
apart from what’s left in the mind
and the attitude of graduating spirit.
Sept.