Such a pretty little girl,

Sprightly almost into chaos—

Such inexhaustible enthusiasm is exhibited nonstop:

I wonder if I was ever like that

Before age and the staleness of living sapped from me

All I’m sure I once had to give—

I could have given so much to anyone

If they just would have asked.

Glamorous in her pale innocence,

She stops and picks up a daisy

For her hair—

How it must be to live inside sparkling enjoyment,

Unversed in the corrupt ways of the world;

A cleanliness untainted by the muck-covered filth

Needy and beseeching hands smear across your body:

I must have been pure once,

Before this quagmire swallowed my mind as well

As crippled my frame.     

Now I’m a resin of amber

Years and years old:

Just string me upon life’s cord and let

Me jingle soundly and impress something,

An ornamental design now that I’m an empty shell,

Until my half-life is reached

And the end draws near.

- M.