When once upon a time is not so long ago

It’s a long way back to innocence
From this pavilion of fear
It’s a long time since pretense
Of happiness was so dear.

It’s a long time since a summer nap
Was snatched inside a class
It’s a long time since a season’s snaps
Were believed to linger and to last.

Two layers of pebbles in a bell jar
Make a reed a poetic symbol
Two drops of blood on a thumb
Make a Judas of a thimble.

Forlorn words and tragic smiles
Thread together in a verse -
Lyrics of a twilight song
Rotten pennies in a purse.

There’s beauty in a canvas of splotches
Or a bowl of wild grass grown
Or a life of dripping hopes
And mistakes that were one’s own.