What is loss of innocence?

Realizing your grandfather isn’t as wise as you thought he was?

Or the sky not as blue as it used to be?

Was it finding a reason to check Halloween treats?

The slug’s curious squirming;

Or the wonder, now ameliorated, upon Man’s reenactment.

Maybe the flickering light at the end of the bar, and the way it

made you feel when he left.

Forget the light;

and when you’ve turned big and bad to old eyes which once held a warmth that shamed the

sun?

And it’s wrong if you decide to hang on to it,

But you’re damned if you don’t;

then it’s:

“Who do you think you are?”

So, behind closed doors, my mother’s doll still sits on linen.

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— A.M. Sención

2024