Youthful Fool Poem by Lindsey Wolf

With youth comes happiness, or so they say.
Yet happiness is absent for those
who have been pushing youth away.

My ideals, beliefs and opinions I have built never borrowed or bought
dismissed with a wave of an adults hand
for at my age, I am not entitled to such thoughts.

For 16 years I have been under thumb, gotten my fill
yet now I'm still too young yet I fear
that if I have not learned by now, I never will.

I am force fed responsibility yet deprived of basic human rights
even conclusions of myself I am too young to draw
for even with 2 open eyes, I am blind in sight.

Sometimes I hate to think the wicked of the grown
that years of life is somehow equal to experience
as if days of life could atone.

I am entrusted with some of the largest adult behavior
I face graduation, jobs and the ability to drive
yet somehow the elders are still slavers and not saviors.

But I will hold back, stay to the side.
I will seal my lips and not threaten you
since I know well, my words could keep a 'grown adult' tongue tied.