The Child Within

Inside the smallest of every emotion

Inside the depths of each mental notion

Inside the flash of every tiny second

Huddles the frightened child within

It fights, when there's no battle to wage

It fears, when there is no need for courage

It doubts, when pure hope floods each moment

It cries, when life is unrestrained enjoyment

The child within hides behind adult disguises

The callous armor of conditioned reflexes

The alien mask of stale social pretension

The idolatrous ego of aimless ambition

But if I look through window after window

Deep into the naked heart of your soul

I am quite certain that I will find quivering

A child for forgiveness desperately yearning

But what grievous sin must be forgiven?

What evil haunts the innocent child within?

T'is no sin in the dance of life to falter!

T'is no crime in the dark forest to blunder!

Children on the same dark journey, all of us

Seeking elusive answers out of mystifying chaos

Each of us defenseless, confused, and humble

Earning nothing but derision as we stumble

The child within must choose, it is certain

Between the dark guilt behind its curtain

And a bright innocent burst from its shell

T'is the crucial divide between heaven and hell

The lesson you must learn, my beautiful lover

Is that nothing separates one from the other

Except the courage to forgive sins large and small

And to forgive yourself, most important of all