where has the time gone

where has the time gone i remember running through the green green grass wild with laughter, breathless with freedom, smiling so hard our cheeks hurt the world was wide, the sky was endless- a blanket of stars stretched beyond reach dreams spun from the night air, the twinkling stars intertwined, caressing and holding on to our hopes the future was far in the distance an unspoken promise but now i sit a puppet of routine i cant take it anymore the laughter has gone quiet, breath put back, cheeks sag and all has been replaced by the hum of air conditioning and the squeak of markers on the board the grind of lessons that feel less like learning and more like forgetting. where has the time gone i long to go back and feel the cool earthy dirt beneath my feet to swing through the trees and touch their leaves as if i could climb into the sky itself and sit upon the clouds like a throne i want to swim on a summer afternoon the sun kissing my skin the water, a perfect refuge from the weight of the world. i want to go back to when i could run around in the green green grass and play all day without a worry in the world but the world is dying i am fading into the background drowning in deadlines sitting in the shadows of impossible standards breath swept from my lungs my looming future filling them with water i am drowning and it leaves me gasping for a taste of the air that once tasted like freedom “live a little,” they say. “run in the woods,” they say. but how can i? the weight of the forests burn and the oceans warm and rise the weight of the future bears down on me like the heaviest of chains, pushing me further and further into the ground i once ran on. where has the time gone? i ask as i look at the young faces beside me the faces that will never know the same green green grass the same endless sky i ask as i see the world around me crumble and crack beneath my feet. where has the time gone? i wonder if it was ever mine to begin with or was it all just a fleeting moment we were taught to chase to lose to mourn.