Maturity


The body grows, I haven't got
The time.  
There's no stopping it.
A physical maturity is becoming
Me, and I it.
New responsibilities, new
Problems.
New feelings, new burdens.
That's natural.
An inevitability.
But what of the mental?
Of the spiritual maturity represented
Not by age but by thought,
Discipline and comprehension?
Age comes with wisdom, but by
Experience does give all.
Aging alone gives naught.
For one could have their
Bodies and not minds.
When six
Teen years go by,
Does that widom come already?
Hormones
Alter the brain,
You've a false sense
Of age.
A wisdom, disclosed only to
You.
Has it come from
Personal experience, a self-discipline, or simply
Teen angst?
My brain thinks that I am smart.
I've little knowledge, but a
Wisdom beyond "brains".
I think that.
It makes me think that I have
A wisdom higher than most.
And with teen years comes independance,
A social outcome of age.
The ability to drive, to join the
Force and to drink.
The independance comes.
Where maturity ends and
Irresponsibility begins is unseen.
Ignorance, the act of ignoring
My parents, my friends, my family,
For the sake of independence.
Running from
Myself.
My responsibilities are of little consequence.
Yet I still believe that I have attained maturity.
The alcohol is sweet to my elder lips.
It passes through,
And steals my thought.
Maturity becomes Wisdom,
Knowledge, Maturity, Responsible,
Age.
I've lost the maturity.
It fled me.
The opposite of responsible
Has become
Me, and I it.
And when I become aged, further
From recognition,
My responsibilities are little and my
Worries great.
I am not mature.
I am a mere child.
And when I have been degraded to that
Of a babbling infant
Has my sanity and very being
Been questioned into oblivion.
...
To realize that you know nothing is to know everything,
And so,
To know that I am immature is to know
I have aged enough.