Ashish Panigrahi
आशिष पाणिग्राही

When did I stop being a child? (my poem)

19-06-2024

When did I stop being a child?
It's been so long, but I used to be quite beguiled.
While I reminisce the days of not caring about the world.
I wonder, when that child stopped being one, as an adult labelled.

Perhaps it was when my interests changed.
Things that I used to like, now feel estranged.
Oh, how I wish I could go back to those simpler times.
That child exists no more, but an adult begrimed.

Carefree is the emotion I took for granted.
Now that I'm older, responsibilities have been handed.
I remember a time when I used to run wild.
Oh, but when did I stop being a child?

As I grow old, my anxiety only becomes stronger.
Is adulthood really supposed to be this way, with nothing more to offer?
Alas, it is too late now to think about a time bygone.
But the only way forward, is to look ahead and march into the unknown.