Just a Boy

Just a Boy

Just a Boy

Just a boy
with big searching eyes
in a slightly guarded face.
A boy listening closely
to the world’s words,
observing patterns of light
and dark around him
and within him.
Leaning towards manhood
yet still just a boy,
seventeen-year-old shoulders reluctant
against the weight of another year.
This almost-man,
with the quietly generous heart
of an old soul
knowing its own salt.
Knowing too the circumference
of its own path.