Dampened is the

Dampened is the

Spirit flagged

By too much exposure

To harsh truths

Weathered by changeable

Attitudes

Stripped of protection

Riven to the bone

Powdered and blown

Ground between

Unyielding ambivalence

And the enduring hope

Of an end

To such indifference

Washed clean

Of old scars

Dirt encrusted

Foibles

Without a moral

Never perceived as redemptive

Doused in the reality

Of a heavy fall

Are puckered, barely healed

Of old pain

Too easily infected

By a filthy day

To endure the romance

Of a storm

Without an arthritic

Twinge of guilt

At the passing

Of a callow flame

The blaze of energy

So widely admired for its

Simple beauty

Now reduced to embers

A smoulder of adolescent

Spirit

Lacking belief

In the power to transform

And regain

A former glory

That may only have existed

In retrospect.