Lost Days of Innocence

Cotton candy taste

Milkshake dreams, candy dazed heads

Running around till street lights dim

Playing in dirt, making messes with paste

Torn band aid where skinned knees bled

Children’s laughter is the best medicine

Rose tinted faces, sticky hands now wet

Soggy mittens, knotty stringy hair

Crowded playground, whipping cars along with street

Little things mean a lot like loose change found

Moving higher and higher on the swing set

Egged on by friends, big kids start to stare

World looking miniature underneath small feet

With courage, jumping off and landing on the ground

I just want to hear the children play

No longer a fight over silly rules
Such as bedtimes at early twilight

Sense of security, cavity of society decays

Playgrounds once full of life become eerily silent
On that somber and tragic Friday.  -Karen Pilarski