Growing Pains

navigating the inexorable loss of innocence is a rite of passage i think i should feel grateful for the secrets kept shrouded in smoke from stolen cigarettes but i shrink in my skin wishing i could tell my mother How much i love her and How scared i really am i apologize to my mother, but she can’t forgive me, and i can’t blame her i crawled into this adolescent chrysalis and emerged the useless woman i promised my father i’d never become i stole their child- or was it Time? add it to the running list of my wrongs, and Run along it does no good to keep one eye over my shoulder when the rest of my life lies ahead of me