THE FIRST DAY BEFORE TWENTY -ONE

I remember our days on marble, O what soulful union,
When we crept on naked soles, minds slippery and fragile,
Little frames of life growing solid, rising from nothing,
To be groomed by lessons we never remembered to forget.

I remember our days of beginning, hands held in promises,
Assuming all will be golden, in castles and earthly heavens,
How we dined on pony houses, feeding our fairies with flying wings,
And we loved because every other feeling was foreign.

I remember our songs of pain, nights when lights went off,
Because father refused to arise from eternal slumber,
Telling us to light the candle, and we were stiff, feeble- afraid,
Because images flew in our heads, and life grew thorns.

I remember, long days of cleaning and clearing,
Times of grief, seasons of melancholy,
When I saw the hands of my carbon copy growing stiff,
And I longed to feel myself in his eyes, but they brought a mirror,
Because my story is now an episode to be told away from him,
And now, fate is willing to crown me a lonely twenty-one,
Filled with departed promises and washed away wishes,
For I've become a flower only tears can bloom.