Poetry On Odyssey: YOUTHS
You are all the ages you've lived through, so why not go back to revisit them?
A midterm appropriate poem: just to remind us that we don't always have to be or feel our age. Academic pressure definitely makes us forget that we're actually humans with emotions. But we deserve to take a trip down memory lane to embrace our past selves. Our youth is what ultimately put us where we are now.
Youths
A middle-aged woman takes a sip of cheap vodka and passes the flask around
allowing the liquid to swim into her bloodstream
The world begins to dance before their eyes
being drunk out of their minds, she tries to find her missing friend
while he helped her look
although they are forty-five years old, they are
intoxicated
unaware and
sixteen
again
A mother of two twins working two shifts at the bank lives her life in haste
Instead of looking at the pedestrian light to signal her when to walk
she looks up towards the stoplight
knowing that the green shifts to red faster than the pedestrian light
giving her three extra seconds to cross the road
But today she waits
she messily paints her toenails a hello kitty pink
sipping on apple juice and living in slow motion
Today she is six
contented and
carefree
A man who inherits a mansion constructed by Hephaestus himself
has a MBS in neuroscience from Harvard—
Rich enough to have 74 pairs of crocodile skin loafers
and butlers in suits running around the manor
Yesterday the whites of his eyes were a constellation of red veins
his cheeks almost indented from the constant drips and drops.
Between the constant uneven breaths
and the thick film of tears blurring his vision
He was two
tantrums and
uncontrollable emotions.
