Monday, May 31, 2010

Eternal youth is the landscape of a lie


I met you at an end-of-summer party.
The end of a great three months, all anyone wanted to do was have a good time.

You found a home in all your scars and ammunition...
Ashes to ashes of our youth

Your name, your age, everything about you is a complete mystery to me.
You had green eyes and dark hair.
And big hands.
You could have been an honor student. Maybe you're a doctor now. You could be Superman.
I don't give a damn.
In five minutes that stretched into an eternity you made the biggest mistake of my life.
In my mind, that's who you'll always be.

She smashed her knuckles into winter
as autumn's wind fades into black

I was ruined for a while.
The thing about an event like this is that it distorts everything.
The way you look at your friends, your family, at boys,
at school, at food, at your stuffed animals and cd's.
Everything that just a few days ago was familiar suddenly seems foreign, changed.
Like someone came into your life and rearranged the things there and you come back to find it all the same, but looking completely different.
Like a burglary. Something is out of place but you can't quite put your finger on it.
But most of all, it distorts the way you see yourself.
I stopped eating. Started hurting myself. It was stupid.
Like your drunken behavior could ever be worth my life.
I started hunting down boys like it was my job, to prove that I could be powerful, too.
I didn't have relationships.
Cheating, picking fights, cruel, undeserved words; I sabotaged the threats of any healthy relationships, squashing them as soon as I felt myself falling.
I had conquests.
I had a list and I quickly ran my fingers down the page and crossed off each one.

Don't lose your faith to your lost naivete
Weather the storm and don't look back on last November
when your banners were burning down

I ran into you once. At a concert.
You didn't remember me, but how could I forget you?
We talked.

Bring us the season we will always remember
Don't let the bonfires go out

I met this boy at a New Year's Eve party. The start of an amazing new year, all anyone wanted to do was have a good time.
He respected me and made me laugh and we became friends.
Friends became more than that and he so easily could have been a name added to that list.
But he wasn't.
He made me happy, made me feel good about myself when we were together, instead of empty, like all the other boys.
He made me want to be a better person.
He made me want to be better for him,
but more importantly, he made me want to be better for me.
He still does.

This is why we're on the edge;
the fight of our life's been drawn in this undying love.

3 comments:

Cate Thomas said...

You're very brave and I love you. I'm glad you're not broken anymore.

Megan Williams said...

this inspires me.

its kinda strange that i'm in a sucky boy situation and this really spoke to me.

thank you so much.

captain badger said...

mama. <3 you a whole lot.