By Idris Mears

Before memory forms

clear-hearted toddlers

belonging only to themselves

playing at praying

prostrate

without preliminaries

But those who arrive

at the door of responsibility

wearing their colors

waving their flags

must wash and prepare

stand and be aware

bow in humility

We do not revert to innocence

but assert good sense

and affirm unity

and the quest for purity

and seek to die

undyed

and the ones who succeed

have the glow

of the newborn

on their ageless faces