Innocence Poem by Lonnie Hicks

No moment more momentous
by speed or slow accretion
by shock or gradual realization
is there

No knowledges sudden thuds
No hard-earned understandings
No towering wave crashing
is there

No heart-rending fears
No Saddened Flowers greater than
Innocence's First Realization
and Sight of Evil in This World

Because the child
thinks all the world
is innocent too

Some never recover
Some Bite Bitter Pills
Some become Evil's Consorts
Some stand aloof
Some divert themselves with private amusements
pretending not to see
Some blame other innocents
Others retreat in a void they create
to mask the shock

By these are worlds created, lost and gained
millions thereby alive or dead
souls drained, maimed or defamed
by these
a planet dead, revived or made alive again
or gone, billions of Walking Dead
billions named and unnamed
all decided
in Innocence's
Meddle
when confronted by the Face of Evil.

To each is given this moment
child most
some of us remember
or resolve
in this moment most
others have forgotten
but for all
lives hereby are defined
and rest is the living out
in this
Innocence-Evil Meme.