Once upon a time

A cliche beginning

Simply children

Always listening

Glistening fables

Babbling brooks

All of our knowledge

Bound within books

We’d frolick through life

A flock of sheep

Innocent nature

Wrapped in cotton fleece

Gnashing teeth

Held at bay

Till nightfall spread

At close of day

Golden eye

That kept us safe

Had gone to sleep

So we’d escape

Down winding roads

Through dappled caves

Followed closely

Seen as prey

Picked off slowly

One by one

Permeated darkness

Virtuous young

Sought for light

Amongst the shade

Silver slivers

Through foliage made

An ornate path

Through obsidian maze

Subduing turmoil

Enchanting rays

Beaten and bruised

But not yet dead

We soldiered on

With weary heads

Grieving lost

Friends forgotten

Childhood past

Innocence rotten

And so we stepped

into the dawn, forever changed

No longer young