Threads of Innocence :Babylon of Beginnings Part I

Life's winding road, a tangled skein -
Each birth, a thread pulled taut with strain.
We grasp and claw as babes, to gain
Some small control o'er pleasure, pain.
Yet time flows on, our efforts vain,
For youth's bright pride is soon laid plain
And in our twilight we're as children again.

The babe knows not their place, their role -
Each cry and coo reveal their soul.
They live within the present's whole,
Unburdened by the weight of years.
Their eyes alight with awe and wonder,
Each day discovered fresh, not plundered.
They dwell in realms we pine for, yonder -
Worlds beyond our adult fears.

As elders, walking canes replace rattles,
Our glories faded into battles
Lost against time, who always settles
The score despite our pleading.
The strong, made frail, must acquiesce,
And don the robes of helplessness,
Relying on caregivers to bless
Us through our twilight bleeding.

The babe sleeps sound, their dreams yet malleable,
While we toss, our nightmares inescapable.
With broad grins, their days are filled with joy,
Not base needs, as we employ
Others to tend to bodily edicts,
Our wrinkled faces ashamed, conflicted.
Yet perhaps in this, meaning's detected -
A message plain, sans alloy:

Cherish those carefree days, revel in wonder,
For soon enough, your glories shall be plundered.
Make not the mistake of squandering your youth
On passion's ash, and notions of truth.  
Drink deep of innocence before it passes,
Indulge imagination, avoid molasses
That sticks your mind in ruts - run free as facets
Of light, toward horizons uncouth!

Then when your frame declines, your fire dampened,
Your earlier zest need not be tampened.       
With softened eyes, and empathy deepened,
Guide new souls down strange, chaotic paths.
Though past frailties may prompt regret,
Through gentleness, your debts can be met.   
For life's strange loop can forge wisdom yet -
If one accepts its thorns and wraths.

The babe knows not where their path will wend,
Each moment new, around the bend.
They live unmarred by sorrow's rend,     
Skies stretched out, horizons endless.
While we survivors bear our scars,       
And feeble steps seem thwarted by bars
Of lost years and misguided stars -
The babe's world gleams regardless.

They whimper over pinpricks, papercuts -
These are their sole travails and ruts.  
Meanwhile we bleed from deeper guts,  
Bemoaning failures, roads not taken.  
But to the babe, each tiny sting      
Is devastation everything.
They know not time shall surely bring
Worse wounds, with pride forsaken.  

So savor minor pains as boons, gems in mire.
Appreciate your numbered breaths, perspire       
To cast off doubt, and never tire
Of marveling at all you yet may reap.   
For swift enough comes bitter night,
When chores weigh more than new delight.  
Dawn's joys once mocked as trite
Shall be the dreams you clutch to keep.

The babe accepts each meal as gift -
Pure sustenance to shift
Their form from soft to firm and swift.   
Each bite a building block, a prize.
While we grimace at plates gone cold,
Complain of entrees stale and old,     
The babe just opens wide to hold
Whatever fare may feed and fortify.

They grasp each spoon as animals newfound,  
Explore its shape and taste without a sound
Of ingratitude. Let their joy astound,
And from their humble place take courage.   
Be again beginners, shun jaded eyes,
That scorn life's manna as poor prize.
Approach each moment with glad surprise,
And nectar you shall glean, not gruel's scourage.

The babe strides forth on floors once staggering -  
Their tiny steps, though wavering,
Are triumphs, worthy trumpets blaring!    
What if to you they seem but creeping?
It matters not - the babe revels
In their blossoming, and fully revels,
Taking for joy each inch that levels
The ground below their feet - not sleeping
Through life's parade, merely critiquing.

As hands grow firm, pursuits expand,   
The babe views all as wonderland -
Each corner hosts some treasure grand
Or monster dire that must be beaten.
While we sham grownups scoff at play,
The babe weaves worlds to conquer day by day.
Would that we nurtured such faith to stay
Alive within our hearts, not retreat in
Shame from our innocence, but keep it.

The babe trusts unconditionally -
Arms open without critique or plea,
Bestowing kisses, hugs and glee.
While 'wisdom' makes us question motives,
Erecting walls 'gainst bonds that nourish,
The babe knows only: love can flourish
When generously grown. So let us cherish       
This truth, despite life's thorns and corrosives -   
That to give freely is most wholesome.   

So may these life bookends remind us -
The beginning babe, and end that finds us
Again dependent, blind, remind us:
Stay supple in your mind, relish  
Each petal opening in your psyche.
Seek not just means to grow your wealth
But uncover daily reasons for health
Of spirit. Thus life's fade to dark from dawn
Shall not stale your soul, but keep it fresh.

The babe breathes each day like their last,
Unaware of time's looming contrast -
That passion's tide will slow, run past,
And former rigor turn to rot.
But let not that stark truth make you bitter-    
Sour the mind on fate you can't alter.  
Rather let end's specter foster filtered
Gratitude now. Drink this moment's drop.
Let not a second be forsworn or forgot.

The babe's unsteady steps cannot foresee
Their future strides' facilities,
How far they'll climb hills and roam free.
So too we cannot gauge what trials,
What heights our lives may still reveal.  
Therefore fret not at fleeting failures,
Let not doubt curdle your world to curds.   
Hold fast to childlike fortitude that does not yield
But flows on, toward destiny uncharted.

For all your stumbles past and still ahead,
Your finest hour's light not yet shed,
Your magnum opus, unlike the babe's, unread -  
These make not you, are not identity.
You are the breath inhaled this instant,
You are the courage called in fear's face,
You are the kindness bestowed without merit's chase -    
Emerald moments temporal, yet eternal,
That gem a life. Their shine time can't sully.

The babe exalts in eight small toes,
Ten tiny fingers, one button nose.  
Each sensation grandiose!
While we seek status, riches, bigger
Roles and accolades to hoist
Our egos 'yond this mortal coil,
The babe finds ample joy beneath the soil    
Of mundane being. So follow their lead beyond the foil  
That veils transcendence in the small, the real.

Lie not in somber wake with remorse    
For roads not walked, praised paths ignored
That may have led to better shores.
Rather dwell gladly with the living!  
No past chance can be reclaimed and chosen-    
Only this moment's potential, frozen
In time, awaits. Let not faith be poisoned
By things irredeemable and done.
Stay with the babe's path - delight in the gifts of the sun.

We enter this world toothless, wordless,
Bewildered as bees freshly swarmed.    
Each step a triumph unconfirmed -  
Newfound mobility, a godlike power!
While exit's indignities sap former pride,
And failing bodies our spirits deride,
The babe cheers our shriveled hearts that chide
Lost dignity. Their simple joy overrides    
Time's eroding tide.

So do not cling to past vanities,   
Or future crowns and disparities -
For present wealth no eye yet sees.
There is no merit to aging, other    
Than wisdom to accept life's flowing sands.  
Let go supposed events that your fame expands -
For blessings surround you now, lily pads
On which to survey your days, discover
Grace in release, not grasping tighter.

The babe's delighted coos remind us too-   
Each breath, a miracle forged anew!
Our jaded lungs have far to travel to
Regain that revelry, to inhale as though    
No plasma exchange was guaranteed, no right
Bestowed by biology's dictates that sight
And form will hold awhile. Remember always the height
From which you've fallen - awe to which you must grow.
Begin again, with small lungs full and throat unchecked.

Life turns round, our frames mere vessels
For youth's bright tongue, screaming when tested,
And age's retreat, once strength invested
In discourse, conjecture and dissection
Of ethos, now dwindled to paltry prattle.    
Such is the ebb and flow of the mortal paddle
Through time's waves. Take comfort, we spider a strand  'cross the abyss,
leave a trace 'fore we fall to forgotten strata-
Some legacy or virtue indestructible.

For dignity wanes, comes a season when
We must crawl, cannot walk as men,
Must bawl out for aid again and again.  
When hearing fades, and eyes grow dim,
When taste turns bland, flares dormant,
When friends expire, leave us aimless -  
Stay not mired in your length'ning laments!  
But summon the courage of newborns, dive deep within
For reservoirs untapped, virgin waters still flowing.

We exit the womb gasping, wailing
At stark newness, sensations unparalleled.  
Each enough to make nerves curdle like milk unbottled.   
Yet through life's clash and steam we travel
Half-numb, discarding childlike shock and marvel  
For modern ennui, curiosities left to curdle,   
While time ticks on, our senses borne too long, they unravel-
Reverse then this squandering, re-view existence as hallowed
Mystery, as the babe's unfocused eyes behold all they behold.  

Their minds absorb, sponge-like, uncritiquing,
Seeking not confirmation or vetting
Of data received, processing.
While our thoughts seize, stiffen and
Solidify, the babe stays open, mining  
For meaning, unrefined but never consigning
Any scrap, no matter how alarming, to waste unheeding.
Their brain's billion tangled tendrils are reaching,
Rather than ossified past all listening, speaking.

Our blinkered brains filter and limit,  
Labeling, "right" or "wrong," omitting
What rattles our safe walls, dimming
Our clearest truths. The babe yet glimpses    
Reality's entirety, ere language crimps and trims,
Declaring what qualifies as truth, admissible or whim.  
Oh, to retain such vision, welcoming each glimpse
That ripens our soul - not reject their strange fruits as sins,
But incorporate all that expands our sight.

Each dawn unfolds some new sensation:   
The cold shock of a floor's smooth station
Against childish feet used to nepenthean
Swaddle's sway. Sun's warmth through curtains filtered-    
Strange textures, tastes, assail virgin senses, unfettered   
By dogma, inviting not fevered worries but calm openness better
Suited to growth. Gather yourself thus, as each edge and corner
Is turned - bravely, babe-eyed, drinking in life's proffered
Variety as wisdom's wine, not threat to reject or fetter.

For at life's end we shall look backward,
And what will all the scales and measures,
Titles achieved and hoarded treasures,  
Worth - if we never grasped love's graces?
If we never sank satiated into being's massage,
But always judged each moment, parsed and picked it apart-
Never surrendered to the mystery of living's carriage?
Observe the babe lost in sensations' montage-  
Absorb all shining moments, be they planned or happenstance miracles

This human frame seeks its freedom,
Thrashing in swaddle's binding tether,   
Limbs insistent on their agenda
To explore beyond current leashes.
While at life's end, the body concedes -
Now desirous of rest, no longer chasing
Each impulse that youth's energy fired.
We're left longing for protective enfolding  
And cradle's sway. World, leave me be, I am tired.  

But while bones still permit adventure,
Partake gladly of each variation weathered!
Though time may come to shun tempest, endeavor
Now to choose riotous seas,  not stagnant pools merely.
Probe uncharted waters, islands ambitious!
Venture betimes into jungles untamed!
Though mercy you'll beg when your timbers are creamed -  
For now, hear the song of far horizons, delicious unknowns beckoning,
And make your life's course an odyssey storied!
 
We enter this life able only to suckle,
Gaze uncomprehending at colors that dazzle,
Assessed without context or words attached, untethered,
Nostrils that know not their purpose still sniff the air-
Cataloging scents strange, alarming or pleasant
But lacking all labels to grasp what each element meant.
While we depart with minds fading, our bodies resented-   
For betraying proud souls once so certain, now errant,
Untrustworthy vessels confining us to childish dependence.

Yet were we not perfectly crafted for survival
In those mewling newborn days, blind but vital?
Our needs purely met, though lacking ratiocination.      
Perhaps then the lesson is, privilege incarnation    
Over intellect - for pure being, 'fore one is fettered  
By self-doubts and dire forecasts engendered    
By proud mind's limits, does not equate to less.  Return
To welcoming each moment as steps in a dance,    
Not means to an end, and you will recover essence.   

We strain new vocals in infancy's chorus,
Brave new rhythms, try new steps before us.
While at life's end, we intone in pooled chorus    
The antique melodies our days dwindle toward.
Yet between these eddies, we swim upriver, sing tuneless-   
Or perhaps in tunes unshared, nonconforming.  
Still, remember always how each soul comes formed in    
Notes of joy utter, first extolling this chance to perform.
Move then with music, respect rhythm's pull,
But write too your lyric, alone, inimitable.

All we've gained, we shall cede-
Our strength and cunning scatter like seeds
In wind, promise unmet recedes.   
But though age leads us back to need,
And deeds be forgotten, no banner unfurled-
Stay not mired in loss, but recall the world
Once turned at your beck and call, unfurled     
Itself before you, a feast, ere pain and creed
Closed it down 'til only narrow fear shows.

So in this moment, recollect how infant eyes
Live wide to each instant, commune with dawn's skies,
And though you've gained much, to retain life's prize-  
That insatiable curiosity, uncritical pleasure-
Discard your hard-won scars and fears. Swallow raw this measure    
Of humility, return to life's fundamental treasure
Before thought and time engrafted their cynicaletchings.  
Throw open again once-jaded senses, recover
Awe for all that yet breathes, moves and offers reachings.

Each attempting gesture of the babe, each grab,    
Kick and wiggle, pure improvisation,
Though clumsy, bears authentic celebration
Of capability unlocked, cradled, crib-trapped
But pulsing yet with promise, giddy to shape
Songs unheard, dash down untrod roads, eschew
All lingering doubt, and let passions play.  While we grey sages
Scoff at missteps, demand practice and patience,
The babe sings incarnate joy, unbound by our cages
Of protocol, image. Oh to regain that stage!

The babe knows not their impending containment-
How the world will instill its model for sane
Behaviors, propriety's unbending frame,   
Schooling spirit into rigid form.
As we near life's end, and long for release again    
From stark duties that chained youth's carefree refrain,   
Ponder the babe's example! Though you've been trained  
Like a vine to conventional shapes, now conform    
To nature's primal pulse - follow your heart's refrain.

We view installments of our demise
In each new gray hair and creaking joint,
Never guessing what glories disappoint  
Before the end. Yet the babe beams with wide eyes
At each bit of progress - each push upward, voice found.  
Let us too applaud increments,
Not dwell on dreams fallen to the ground
Or glories lost. Be instead newborn babes filled with joy's fount
For every inch forward, not mourning abilities drowned.



























   The poem is part of a full version found in the book “Homo Sapiens” Part Part I - XVIII, written by Mawphniang Napoleon. This book is part of the popular “Homo Sapiens” book series, which can be purchased online at various online bookstores, such as Amazon. The book is available for purchase for those who are interested in reading the complete version of the poem. Remember to get all the books from the “Homo Sapiens” series, as well as other books by the same author.   So, don’t hesitate and get a copy today from one of the many online bookstores.   Khublei Shihajar Nguh,  (Dhanewad  )(Thank you )