The wide-eyed innocence
Beyond recollection
Beyond nuance
When the world could only register
In stark simplicities

Mommy/not mommy
Pain/tickle/ooooh!
Shiny!

When I was free
To express
Every goddamn emotion
I felt
In every moment

A torrent of tears
Screams of anguish
A coo for a stranger’s caress
Giggles for the silly thing
Shaken for my joy only

And awe
So much awe

Now nuance has become unsubtle
Which tinges awe
With the immensity
Of evil

So I long for an innocence
I cannot recall
Knowing it only in the eyes
Of those who have no words
To remind me of it

I envy the present
That lives behind their eyes
But the future?
I fear for them