A little girl was playing in the garden 'round her home,
Mischief sparkled in her dark eyes and her curly hair was blond.
Innocent joy rang in the laughter of her happy, playful song:
'Dandelions are as pretty as the flowers that grow high.
I have picked some for you, Mommy, and I want to show you why.
They make tassels on our slippers; we can wear them, you and I.'
Into that happy garden crept a serpent black and long,
Shining sinister in the sunlight as he flicked a jeweled tongue.
Captivatedly she listened to his strange inviting song:
'Stolen candies can be sweeter than the ones your parents buy.
Taste how sweet they are, like honey, as I coil about your thigh.
It will be our little secret as we eat them, you and I.'
Secrets growing in a garden, in among the pretty blooms,
Rob children of their laughter; so that it was very soon
That a mother's heart was sighing a sad, foreboding tune:
'Oh, my daughter was so pretty, and I wish that I knew why
Such a change has come about her that it makes my spirit cry.
Her eyes have lost their glitter and she has not told me why.'
Little girls will always grow up; that, in life, has been decreed,
While secrets locked in childhood are concealed in history.
Yet the scars they are concealing will be sung in misery:
'Why do candies taste so bitter? Why does laughter make me cry?
Why do I have a feeling happiness has passed me by?
I'm living with a memory that will haunt me 'til I die.
Within me lives a memory that will haunt me 'til I die.'
Adeline Foster
http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/death-of-innocence-3/
