She smiles with her sad face, and
You know. They repeat in your
Memory, inevitable as old sitcoms,
Those teenage memories.

Her past is small compared to
Her future: she is still descending
The downward curve to rock bottom.
You see all this from a simple glance,
Remembering how big those changes
Seemed before they were dwarfed.

A strange town with stranger people;
New streets, new corridors, new feelings
To navigate as the story really starts
And she grows up enough to
Begin to realise how young she is.

Everything is breakable, you see:
Hearts and bones, skin and soul.
Reassembling oneself is a huge
Mountain to climb, but one with
An unsurpassed view from the top.

She faces you with her sad smile, and
You know: you have seen chapters
Of this story before, played out
In flesh and blood and love,
But she will live it, word by word,
Page by page, day by day.

11/13/2018

Posted on 11/16/2018
Copyright © 2024 Richard Vince