Childhood Poem by Jenna Dandurand

i haven't experienced childhood.
not yet. people say that
i have, because i've
played on the elementary playground,
because i've made up excuses for homework,
but if that's what childhood is,
then it's really empty.
who cares if you ate live worms?
who wants to know if you held frogs?
childhood is not experiences
as much as it is
the quality of them.
it's not how many friends you had,
but how many people you relied on
to get through life day after day.
it's not how many boys you dated,
but how many made you smile
for no reason.
i haven't experienced childhood,
and only few ever had.
it's the good times you've had,
laughing on the floor with friends.
it's the people you've had the chance to know,
the places you'll always remember for
doing something that made you
feel in the clouds.
when you're a child,
you rarely experience
childhood.
to me, it comes
to true form when you're an adult.