"21 years"

"21 years"
a sort-of-coming-of-age poem by jake kilroy.

i remember when nothing was sacred.

it was after the orange groves,

after the model homes,

but before the shopping center.

i spent a summer in a friend's basement,

lovesick and somehow heartless,

learning guitar when i wasn't swimming

and yet gasping for air without a place to be.

i discovered panic in the spring

and developed obsession by fall.

america let me drink that summer.

it was darn good of them.

not that i needed another reason

to laugh.