i've restarted kindergarten
and im learning to tie shoes for the first time,
the bows of this life seem so lop-sided and tangled,
half-assed knots that i tie and untie and tie.
practice, practice, practice, fail.
work, fingers, work.
how did i forget the simple figure-eight, when you left.
when you left, all the muscle-memory of my life fell apart.
now my body feels new and strangely old all the same.

when we met, i was learning to walk, and somehow i depended on you
to get me from crawling to running, and without you i wobble and fall,
where once a fresh-face faced forward and put one foot in front of the other
now, the lines of imminent mortality form wisps at the corner of my eyes
and i no longer run barefoot, in fact i fell and stayed down.
youth is wasted on the young, they say.

09/22/2010

Posted on 09/22/2010
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