Birthday

When I was a boy between twelve and twenty,
I did all the things boys have done as they grew,
but I wondered, I did, with a whole world against me,
why my wants were so wrong, but so pleasing to do.

It was a world that to me was unwilling and busy
with pedestrian thought and a wasteful routine
that slapped a boy down till he was dull and dizzy -
a boy who knew nothing of what was obscene.

Though today I shall count myself sixty and twenty,
much altered by principles I was pressed to pursue,
I wish for the time when a world was against me,
and my wants were so wrong, but so pleasing to do.

J.D. Heskin

If you've any comment on this poem, J.D.Heskin would be pleased to hear from you.