tawdry dragon
“When We Were Small”
When we were small, the world was wide,
A garden gate we stepped outside,
With scraped-up knees and sticky hands,
We ruled the seas and built our lands.
The skies were drawn with crayons bold,
Each secret whispered, stories told—
The stars would listen when we cried,
And monsters only lived outside.
But clocks kept ticking, soft and slow,
The flowers wilted; we let go.
Our laughter faded, not by choice,
Replaced by silence in our voice.
Now mirrors show what time has done,
The child we knew begins to run—
Still hiding in some attic room,
Beneath the dust, behind the gloom.
We dress in roles, we speak in lines,
We fake the smiles, ignore the signs.
Yet sometimes, when the dark is near,
We hear our younger voices clear.
So here’s to forts and fireflies,
To cardboard crowns and starry skies—
To all the dreams we used to keep,
Now buried somewhere, fast asleep.
novel girder
sand gate