letter to you

life is very strange sometimes

i find myself wishing i were back in childhood

making mischief, playing in the mud

happy-go-lucky as the days were long

i remember that seven hours was eternity

barefoot summers were infinite

and Christmas could never come soon enough

i thought school must surely be endless

but slowly life sped up

when i was twelve and two weeks

i experienced europe and culture shock

i turned thirteen in the year two thousand

and thought it very fitting

at fourteen i ran along the red sand beaches

of prince edward island, the water freezing cold

i was free but afraid

it was 2001, three weeks after the towers tumbled

15 came and went and so did my braces

mom had surgery, nothing happened

until six weeks before sixteen, when i started

college, shaking in a pair of shoes i’ve forgotten

that october marked the third trip to germany

in five years, but also the last so far

at seventeen i graduated high school

eighteen, community college, and i voted

with nineteen came a driver’s license

and with twenty, a university diploma

now i don’t know what to do

childhood is rosy and uncomplicated in my memory

not like this new life i’m trying to lead

but at the same time, it’s beautiful

this alien adventure of mine

although trusting God and waiting

is sometimes harder than all

the ten-page papers i pounded out

this is how my days fly by

existing and searching and wondering

i’ll admit that i’m confused right now

but someday i know it will make perfect sense