Immaturity

About the time one desultory year slipped into another

And everywhere, all around me, well-laid plans were falling into place

And mine were blowing up in my face

Immaturity willed itself

To stand up and make a name

Though neither a virtue nor a vice

But looked upon with scorn nonetheless

In a tepid world of virtues preaching themselves

With monotonous regularity and unbounded affectation

It was immaturity that held me together

Pushed me towards stubborn optimism at first

And then just plain stubbornness

As I was gathering my thoughts in earnest

About what ought to be done

Of a future ever present

The eternal validity of a life-plan cannot be denied

To those born to order and rigidity

The steps they took neatly outlined to conformity

For if a thousand follow the path most certain

‘Tis expected the thousandth and first would do the same

But a leap into thin air was what I opted for

Even if I land among nettles and thorns,

and that failure could wait at every turn

For who can tell unless one tries

What’s in store for the impetuous soul?

Carefree it wanders, o’er prudence and foresight

And truth be told, when money is scarce

Reason too is scarce;

The call of the whim is strong, there-in lies a foolhardy gamble

In times such as these, the saddest words are 'you can’t'

Wherein an oft repeated hope is enough to blind one

To much of the mundane realism

And to all of our hardened pragmatism

I listened, yet again, to the whisperer of idle thoughts

And off I went to chase a glimpse of what they promised

And now that I have been struck

by the damnation of dreams

with equanimity slowly being swept into a tidal stream

Immaturity has well-nigh placed me

on the path of crass ridicule and insensitive mirth

So a fool’s wisdom is all that I am to be left with

and nothing else to gain, no not even a dour outlook

but the stoic composure of a wet rook

as Immaturity’s grip gets washed away

under a spell of the cold and sombre rain