I Wonder Why

The wide-eyed newborn, ever alert, so delicate and fragile, goggles up at her mother.
How does life procure such infinitesimal miracles?
The toddler toddles off to explore the known world: beds, tables, counters, floors.
Wobbly legs like building block skyscrapers on the verge of collapse.
How does such chaste curiosity survive to adulthood?
The young child falls asleep on the couch,
Hair spread out like a halo,
Body splayed over the cushions.
Can such innocence ever truly die?
The elementary-schooler, like a sponge,
Soaks up everything she’s taught and still feels out of place.
Recess comes, and finally she begins to make her peace.
Walking through the chilly forests, each breath a wisp of steam.
It’s here she finds the others like her, it’s here that she believes.
A young adult, not yet in teenage years, grapples for better elucidation to explain away her fears.
A single soul lost amidst a sea of strife
A single person on a quest for the meaning of life.
A little older now, she slowly fades away.
Buried under mountains of priorities to sift through every day.
Is the distant future worth the life she leads
Sacrificing more and more on the hope she’ll one day succeed?
School itself is pressing down, giant walls like hands close in all around
Claustrophobia and stress are threatening to drown her
Where are the days of yesteryear? When all was easy and the path was clear?
Where is the wisdom of long ago? When life wasn’t a struggle not to be destroyed in time’s flow?