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