Pains Of Growing Up

How halcyon were those days in God’s good old earth
When the gentle fairies; knights with shiny armors of bygone days
On majestic white horses, all watched over me.
Only to protect me, that was their task, a solemn duty.
And people were all good, all around me, mostly that is.
The evil ones, being rare, didn’t count, they didn’t
Have a chance in God’s good old earth.

Growing up, the prophets awed me, all of them
The King who left his kingdom, the Sheppard man, the Carpenter
The Warrior of the desert, their teachings, the Almighty in heaven
And their discourses, like volume of seas and mountains majestic
The beautiful flowery words, and their magical specter.
Oh, how serene were those days, the evil didn’t
Have a chance in God’s good old earth.

Now it’s my own autumn, sages are all gone
Fairies in heaven, Alice in Wonderland—smoke mirror, nothing more,
Sycophants all around, and how I see through them!
How it broke my heart, the hurt and the anguish.
But I’ve my own shield, the universe within me
And my Father, not in heaven, not on a throne
Lives within me, and without, and I’ve my peace.