a poem by Amaranthine

//feeling a bit inspired today. Enjoy.//




little Johnny's mother slapped his hand
warning him away from the cookie tray
placed hot and steaming fresh on the kitchen counter
which he knew he shouldn't touch
but the cookies looked so sweet and piping hot

those were the days
when Johnny learned what he thought was life
that you shouldn't cheat
or the playground monitor would whistle
and drag you out of the game.
when you play play fair.
that no one likes a liar.
if you shatter a window, it'll catch up to you
when the grown ups find out

And most of all,
don't touch a cookie tray
hot out of the oven.
It looks good but burns worse.

Now Johnny wishes for those days,
when the rules still applied
Now cheaters win
no playground monitor to drag them out of the game
People lie and they do just fine
They shatter lives and never look back
and no one finds out.

And Johnny saw the cookie tray
searing hot on the table
He knew that it would burn
but it was all laid out with any number of tasty and tantalizing cookies.
And he couldn't resist
And no one was there to slap his hand away.

But little Johnny still lives inside somewhere
Newly hurt every time someone is unfair
instead of getting used to it.
He'll never get used to people cheating.
He still wants to be the playground monitor,
and try to drag them out of the game.
He hears about people whose lives were shattered by lies
and he won't forget them,.

They won't make little Johnny stop caring
and somewhere inside him
he still nurses
the burns
from the tray he knew he shouldn't have touched.