Like a Child

A Poem

Photo by Walter Torres from Pexels

growing up has its perks —

so they said to Peter Pan, I’m told —

but the park is no longer a playground,

instead just an effigy to what lay in the past.

loving is a complicated thing,

gone away from butterfly kisses,

and I’m left stranded in a moment

where I can’t move or say a word.

going to work, paying the bills —

all of it sucks a little joy from me

until I’m just left a husk of what I was

because nothing feels fulfilling anymore.

watching the kids on the swings

takes me back to easier days

when we traded Barbies and laughed

while our mothers smiled from afar.

seeing you now, I don’t recognize

the girl who skinned her knees and

taught me to scour for four-leaf clovers

as we dreamed of the boyfriends we craved.

catching up on the present,

making peace with the past,

and trying to look towards the future —

I’m still a child at heart, so terrified

of all that it means to grow up.