Before the recognition of pain
Before the false perception of the teeming rain
Before the keen pursuit of misuse
Before the first and third-party abuse
Before the physical dependence
Before the need for vengeance
Before the miles of travel
Before the plans unravelled
Before the sweet temptation of the skin
Before the shit I laboured awkwardly in
Before the emotional blackmail
Before the constant questioning
Before the eye for detail
Before the allegations and the reckoning
Before the heat of ice
Before the cold of flames
Before all this pointless advice
Before the vacant expert explained
Before the weight of the journey came to call
Before it all
Before it all
Only purity, ignorance and innocence
Awaiting the steel of experience
Tempered by accomplishment and forged by faults
To carve, to shape, to form, to maul
Before it all
Was uninformed and ill defined
And not where all the interest lies
22nd Sept 2021