Graham Greene, "The Lost Childhood"

I remember distinctly the suddenness
with which a key turned in a lock
and I found I could read .. All a
long summer holiday I kept my secret,
as I believed: I did not want anybody
to know that I could read. I suppose
I half consciously realized even then
that this was the dangerous moment.



      

    I expunge the stain of

    remembering the Little

    Father and his Czarina

    beneath the White House

    Christmas trees, toying

    with children's dreams -

    as I recall a fragment

    from an essay in plain

    sight of every visitor

    to my home, every day  -

    who lets one trust the

    lessons we must learn.

Graham Greene
The Lost Childhood
  and Other Essays
Viking, 1951©