Retreat From Aging Poem by Raj Dronamraju

Leave behind childish things
Laughter without looking over one's shoulder
The ability to say that which threatens the listener with its honesty
Instead, say nothing despite participating in an hour or so of conversation
Forgotten toy majesty hangs itself in the closet
Forgotten toy majesty never got over such a quick abandonment

Leave behind adult worries
A distraction with the adhesive quality of a spider web
A convoy of clamoring potential fates
Tailgating one another, honking, lurching into dreams in rows of increasing nastiness

Fast, bring this forward
And explain how a mother could kill her children
With the kick in the pants fake truth of growing up and getting a job and gradually warping innocence like an out of control glass blower

You are the dour one
Full of the towering pettiness of maturity
Someone's definition of how to behave marinated with prunes and force fed
In the middle of the night, tie a kerchief to a stick like a hobo
And retreat from aging into an unknown alternative to their fixed grown-up mortality