YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL

[Maureen K Clifford]

YOUNG AND BEAUTIFUL … Maureen Clifford © The #ScribblyBarkPoet


When she was young and beautiful she then had no idea
That she was young and beautiful, she lived her life in fear.
In fear that she’d be lacking all the things a young girl needs.
Feared love would find her napping? Feared in life she’d not succeed?

Would she indeed be popular? Or just be cast aside?
Were her clothes trendy enough or should she perhaps hide.
Should she try drugs then offered? Or give the smokes a go?
Were sexual favours given on a first date? She thought no.

Was she not thin enough to fit in with the current set?
Was her hair just too curly? She could straighten it I bet.
Were her thoughts worth the sharing – was it better to be dumb?
Did folks think her too smart or brash? Or perhaps just humdrum.

So many questions asked back then. So trite, she now can see.
For folks must take each other as they are. Don’t you agree?
But youth has not the wisdom that we gain in later years.
Our younger days are beset by a myriad of fears.

And now – not young or beautiful, it’s in photos I see,
a girl so young and beautiful, and realize she was me.
I mourn those young years wasted and regret my vanities,
but I guess they’ve added to the woman here today …. that’s me.

She now knows where she’s going, and she sure knows where she’s been.
She’s faced life’s many sorrows and she’s lived through life’s sweet dreams.
She’s done the hard and stressful yards and somehow has survived.
No longer young and beautiful – but so far, still alive.


16.11.2025