Prose Challenge of the Month #1: Write about losing your innocence. Fifteen entries will be featured in a Prose Original Book of the Month, whereby each winner will take 5% lifetime royalties. You must purchase the book to discover its authors, who will be determined by objective data (reads, likes, reposts, comments) and by team vote to ensure reader satisfaction. When sharing to social media, please use the hashtags “itslit,” “getlit,” and “ProseChallenge.”

Naivety

You were born on the wrong side of the tracks.

Destined from your first wide eyed look at the world to be a nothing

when you had the potential to be everything.

My mother whispered about you in the ear of her friends and turned away but I stared.

I saw all the world's stars in your eyes and all the worlds bruises on your cheeks.

It was odd, because at this point I saw the world in full colors, vibrant tales of happiness and goodwill towards men danced in my thoughts.

I saw a boy who's mother laid hands on him but not in the loving way I was used to. I didn't even know that was possible.

I saw the world as bright and warm and suddenly you made me realise that it's not.

In true Baader-Meinhof Phenomenon fashion I started to see the bad everywhere.

I noticed the bruises on their wrists before I noticed the soft crurve of their lips, I noticed the rain before the bow, I noticed the ruin before the love.

You were born on the wrong side of the tracks, but I opened my eyes a little wider and saw past them.