Barely Grown

I couldn’t have known then
Dirt roads get paved
Feet fell on earthen grooves
Before Rome’s single day
Of wide lanes of stone.
The dusty days we saved
Laid a language of soul
My feet alone still obey
Through the underbrush
We spun new wheels,
Laughing at sudden freedom
Wild children, quick to feel
Slow to reconsider
Cannonballs in murky lakes
We came, we saw, we conquered
Tiny moments of immortality breaking
Like endless sunrises
And ever incoming tides
These optimistic assurances
Weren’t born from pride
But blind faith
Followed by organic baptism
Amniotic waters watch no skies,
They see no future cataclysms to deny,

And our sun-drenched youth
Walked bare roads in bare feet
Towels and clothes over a shoulder
Stopping in the street
To giggle gratitude to a tinted sky.