Little Girl in a white dress and a red belt
With loosened ribbons

Hanging from her hair, and the clock strikes 7am

Runs she-unwilling-towards the gate leaving her mother’s warm shawl behind
On a misty wintry morning.

And she prays,” Let me grow up quick and I won’t have to reach school in unholy hour like this”

The Teenager still in a white dress and a red belt

(Does the dress get, somehow, a little shorter, showing off the legs?!)

With braided hair and hundreds of clips that grapple with her trendy haircut

She throws away the ribbon while coming home-grinning and locking gazes!

And she prays,” Let me grow up quick and I won’t have to wear this uniform and the stupid
ribbon and look plain”

A woman found the Little Girl and the Teenager too eager to grow up

In the pages of her diary-yellow and dog eared

And the first drops of summer rains, bright tiny ladies clog dancing while soaking in them,

The black shoes and white socks-sodden!

The queue in front of the food stalls everyday!
 If she goes by that place nowadays the shopkeeper still says 

“You haven’t changed!”

And all she can do is make a secret wish:  “Let me be them once again and I won’t rue growing up, not even for a second”