Toetry Entry 4: Innocence

I look down
on the gray grassy riverbank.
A small boy in blue overalls
plunges his hands into the water.

In his innocent laugh is an understanding
as rich and mystical as the shaman’s dance.

Like the evening wind
through a canyon,
the experience we call life
flows through this child – undaunted.

I cry a tear
for it’s a matter of time
before our world shackles
his virgin mind.