Lost

I lost it once when I was young, so very long ago

So many years have come and gone, when last I saw it so

I knew I had it with me once, I remember it quite well

Or am I only wishing, for things not found in hell

It used to walk with me to school, in springtime’s tender light

And lay its head beside my own, on winters chilly nights

But then one night it blew away, or ran or flew or hopped

It left me there, just me alone, while it, it never stopped

I looked for it, I searched and dug, for oh so many years

I traveled far and chased it down through pains and toils and tears

I searched for it in bottles, of whisky then of scotch

I poked about and peered inside, of beers and buttered schnapps

I sought for it in fair young breasts, both tender firm and soft

I sought it in her golden hairs and those of blackened locks

In leg and thigh, with silken flesh, tummies flat as rocks

I opened them and slid inside to stop the tick of clocks

I looked for it potions mixed, in drugs both shot and smoked

In powders white and poisons red, my life designed to choke

I searched for it in youthful lips, in passions sighs and looks

In emerald eyes and fervent cries, on screens, in tapes and books

I sought for it in lies and tales, so flattering to hear

Yet meaning something less than naught, when each they called me, dear

Yet found it not, no matter what, regardless what I did

For it was gone and once it left, from then it always hid

I looked for it in foreign lands on peaks and mountaintops

Where all is white but rocks that crop, through snow and winters frost

I searched throughout the jungles damp and lands so dry and hot

From ocean shores and island whores, where girls, they wear no tops

I sought within the bards chagrin and plays of Lancelot

Of Shakespeare’s fame and lion’s game, and cast the lots I bought

I looked to stage of ballets sage and opera songs aloft

I watched them dance and sing their songs, of pain and death and rot

Then one day, the time it came, when yes I had to die

To tumble down, right through the ground, to where I now do lie

There I saw my Lord again and heard him ask me why

Why had I been just looking so, through wind and earth and sky

Of course my Lord he knew quite well, but wanted me to test

To see if I had seen or learned, just what in life is best

When I told him what I’d lost and why I lived to cry

He told me thus right there and then, this about my life

My son you never lost it, it just sort of slipped away

Or better yet your soul forgot, just where it did then lay

No, my son you lost it not, yet gave it all away

When first you learned how not to love and why the children play

Yet see my son, I’ve kept it safe, for you both clean and free

So if you will, please come with me, I’ll show you what you seek

So then my Lord he took me, to quite a wondrous place

Where all must pass and all must see, if from the human race

As he turned to face my fear, his smile so wide and full

A tear did roll from off his cheek, while all the angels paused

Welcome home he said, my lonely boy I’ve missed

Then opened up just one hand, while giving me a kiss

There within his strong wide palm, beside the scar it cost

He held for me just what I sought, what once I’d thought I lost

Once again, I saw the sky with wonder and with glee

As my Lord, he held it up, so pure and clean of sheen

So shiny clear and light, so stunning fresh and bright

Same as when I’d lost it, that lone and dreary night

In the end he held it out, again for naught but free

Then placed it back within my hands, so once again I’d be

The loving boy I was before…when innocence dwelled in me

A child once more, running off, to splash within the sea

The End

© 2010, Tim Wilkinson & Wayne Wilks