Innocence Lost

tackled to the ground and held in place
while tears of fear streamed down your face,
this fellow – had you actually called him friend? –
now determined for your youth to end…
the tearing clothes, the musty smell,
his breath reminiscent of the bowels of hell –
he takes you there, in the open air,
and as your soul flees, he does not care
afterwards, the usual song –
“tell anyone and you’ll be gone” –
and you flee that place you once loved –
flee the senses wrapped around you like a glove.
you try to wash the dirt away –
but it also seems to come back the next day.
you break your nerve, tell a friend –
hoping this nightmare will soon come to an end –
but they laugh and point and say,
“that’s not how he told it the other day!”
you hide your shame and swallow your disgrace,
just praying for the day you can flee this place…
for you know that should you not,
your life may end with a hangman’s knot.
for now your soul does not have a home…
in search of truth, it eternally does roam…
and one day soon, when the time is here,
one day soon, when he comes near,
as sudden as the soul was broken
is the burden from your shoulders taken…
in relief you heave a sigh
and in grief you begin to cry –
cry for innocence lost on a summer’s day…
innocence lost because of an act you pray
never befalls another youth’s soul…
an act for whom, truly, the bell does toll.