Lolita

A girl in sunlight, stolen from the page,

her laughter caught in shadows of the mind.

The world recoils at what it cannot gauge,

yet Nabokov leaves no easy truth behind.

Ink becomes desire, fear, and blame,

a tale of power twisted into art.

Each sentence trembles with a quiet shame,

each line a mirror to the human heart.

Banned, condemned, whispered in school halls,

its taboo ignites the anxious and the brave.

For stories that disturb the walls we build

are the ones that teach us how to behave.

To read is to reckon, to reckon is to feel,

the line between innocence and knowledge frail.

And though society may lash and conceal,

the words endure, unsettling yet vital, pale.