Too Bitter a Cup

Through the schoolyard running as shadows grow long and the late day sun feeling warm and strong I'm loving this vision that I am seeing of children at play and as one in being They illustrate just how life ought to flow with effortless laughter and faces aglow One day they shall look back at these very times and perhaps write them down while grasping for rhymes I think I'm in need of someone to say that in spite all of this everything is okay But I feel like I'm trapped in some miserable cult which summarizes perfectly being an adult We've lost something, each of us, since we were small If life were a pitcher, it threw us a curveball As I watch all these children, so happy and free in joyful oblivion to the world I see It's clear now that it was too bitter a cup to drink for the sake of being grownup I traded my childhood for what I've become the cruel reality has stricken me dumb I never saw coming my innocence lost Never knew of a line I unwittingly crossed No refunds are given, no way to return this one-way transaction continues to burn If I could have seen a sign or a door or a clear way to know what I was in for Behind is where I would have chosen to stay And right now I'd be one of these children at play