I can still remember
7th grade health class,
all seventeen of us,
encased in a room
with signatures on its walls,
like ink on skin.
We all stared,
At one another,
And giggled in nervous laughter.
There never was a room so full of secrets.
And that fateful day,
When the vicious cycle of reality
Was revealed,
A bit of our
Innocence
Was left,
Embedded into our signatures that we
Had Sketched in
Permanent marker
On the walls.
Although my drug of choice was
Unlike any other
That we had ever heard of,
I still think back to that room
Where we left
Our innocence
Behind.