You are currently browsing the category archive for the 'Poetry' category.
when we’re kids, it’s a sip, a taste,
illicit droplets of adulthood trickling down our gullets
then we flee or try to act worldly
as years advance unsupervised we
try to act worldly
riding the buzz, claiming our mistakes
in the name of righteous immaturity,
we flee into the unraveling party
seeking a sovereign land
when we’re in our twenties, we drink
to dodge the tumbling chunks of our dreams, cracked ceilings
we drink to take the edge of the innocence
we once mistook for hope
in our thirties, it’s a habit
social, solitary, a nice merlot
our pastimes have boiled down to this,
comfortable and good enough, like a marriage
the flavors matter less when we lose our jobs
when our kids slam doors
the flavors matter less when she leaves
or when she comes back, and you tell yourself you weren’t crying
when we’re fifty, it’s a comfort
something classic, a familiar warmth
old leather and old vinyl, and old friends
we go out for a beer with the new guys
they laugh and try to act worldly
the falling snow, the fragrant tree, time passes
you wipe your glasses, share a brandy, a comfort,
something familiar
dodging the falling husks
of dead dreams, collecting soft and final like leaves
or old photographs, mingling with memories
your grandchildren make tracks in them like snow
and you tell yourself you’re not crying
Do you remember?
Pressed together close, the lit-up city,
The world, in the glow of our TVs,
In the cathode glow of our computers,
Made anxious by imminent data disaster,
Made joyous by the dawning of an age
Do you remember walking arm in arm down midnight streets
Cheery catcalls to neighbours, strangers
Like a kind of Christmas
Do you remember, we had no fear then
Not for us the end of the world then
Not for us; we were young,
Huddled in the glow of our TVs,
Waiting to greet the new year, glass in hand
Anticipating, how we lived our lives
Buoyant like nobody’s business,
This age was ours, ours, we would claim it
The future was a bright jewel in our hands,
Nanotubes and helices glittering
And ours was the age, ours, ours
And do you remember now, as we watch the years,
Year after year pageant by – browbeaten
By the sameness of the new world to the old,
By the drudgery inherited in spite
Of adolescent dreaming – how we dreamed?
We were going to make science art, art science,
Body into computer, and computers bodies
We would math our way to heaven, and fill it up
With pixelated stars we knew by name.
My heart feels like scrambled eggs -
Messy, warm, delicious.
Unidentifiable,
Nonetheless nutritious.
Love’s the thing that whisked it up,
Bewildering and breezy -
Scary, but I’ll stick around.
Love’s not over easy.
