[o124fe]

Childhood

I used to think that grown-up people chose
To have stiff backs and wrinkles round their nose,
And veins like small fat snakes on either hand,
On purpose to be grand.
Till though the banisters I watched one day
My great-aunt Etty's friend who was going away,
And how her onyx beas had come unstrung.
I saw her grope to find them as they rolled;
And then I knew she was helplessly old,
As I was helplessly young.
- Frances Conford