I’m not quite sure why I’m so obsessed with the past. After all, If I remember correctly, I wasn’t that fond of it at the time.
Tag: reflection
Bad Kids
My friend wasn’t a bad kid
Bad kids stole money from their mom’s purse
Bad kids did hard drugs
Bad kids had unprotected sex
Bad kids always got into fights
Boys will be boys, my friend said
His son only smoked a little grass
He only painted a little graffiti
He only drank a little beer
On his way home from a party
He only crossed the white line a little bit
But his girlfriend is more than a little dead
Because he wasn’t a bad kid
Hey Dumb Ass
Damn…
All of a sudden I’m old. I swear that when I went to bed last night I was young. I could run and jump, play ball with the kids, eat ice cream, drink beer, stay out all night and still make it to work the next morning with a smile on my face. But when I woke up this morning, it was a struggle to find my glasses before I could see good enough to even find my way to the bathroom to retrieve my teeth from the glass on the sink.
My mind tells me that I can still do all those things that I always just took for granted. But, I guess all my sweet moves on the field of play might have soured a bit. I probably should have known something was going on when they started asking me be the scorekeeper instead of a player. But, in my stubborn refusal to age, I did not pay attention ‘to everyone who ever knew me’ and attempted to join in on their reindeer games anyway. It only took a few minutes before my body parts looked at me in shame and decided to rebel.
Hey stupid ass…you want to quit that now. Cease and desist immediately or we’ll make you pay. And no amount of ibuprofen is going to fix it either.
But I did learn a valuable lesson. Whoever it was that said ‘No pain, no gain’ was younger than 30.
15
You sweet, tender, immortal fifteen
Caught up in wonderful delusions
Fearlessly staring life in the face
Facing your future without remorse
Do not sleep away your innocents
Age will slip quietly through your door
You will awaken to find yourself
Longing for all your youthful passions
The Train
Through shoeless feet I feel
The ground trembling
I thrust my fist into the air
And pump it up and down
The blast of the horn drives me back a step
I yell, but my voice will not rise above the beast’s roar
My heart’s beat begins to match the rhythm from the sound
Of its massive wheels and my head swoons as I watch the cars gently roll from side to side…Powerful and terrifying
It seems to lift me off my feet and pull me closer
I am afraid the steel monster will devour me
My legs will not let me back away
At last I see the bright red caboose
I wave my arms wildly and in answer
To my exaggerated welcome
A grey sleeved arm
Slips out the window
The gloved hand waves
The roar subsides
The trembling vanishes
On weakened knees
I cross the tracks
Jerry Brotherton 