Childhood was shorter then,
and is again --
when I was fourteen a girl
in my class, Anna,
had her first (of four)
baby.
I was slower at fourteen,
still lost in fairy tales
of slaying dragons.
Princes held no allure.
And now, twenty-four,
I think at last of having
children, and plan to give them
everything, or at least
a happy childhood.
Then I remember Juliet
and Anna. What are we doing
to our children?
*****
M.A. Mohanraj
June 27, 1996