I’d have less call to lift this pen
if I knew now what I knew then.
What I know encumbers me;
it didn't when I knew I'd be
in bed by eight, asleep by nine,
and slapped for stepping out of line.

But as a boy who lived in dens
I also loved to train my lens
on far-too-far-off  adulthood.
I saw the trees but not the wood;
in ignorance I dressed a stage,
and found the props collapsed with age.