Photo by Victória Kubiaki on Unsplash
I
& we thought the saddest day of our lives
would be the day REM broke up but then we buried
parents siblings & friends
suffered divorces & bankruptcies
& lived lives
II
let’s drive up an on-ramp in the wrong gear
& I’ll show you a place I’ve never lived
let me imagine hills quiver when the stick shift
sticks in a hotwired Corolla & let’s laugh
as we roll back with each stubborn thrust forward
stunted by feeling gravity’s pull &
expectations
III
& our grandfathers fought World War II
& dragged us to the post office
to register for the draft
in case of World War III
told us Reagan won’t start a war
(probably)
& I just wanted
to watch MTV
&
IV
the grandsons & granddaughters of the greatest
generation set out to change the world struggled
with eating disorders in dark corners never thinking
global & acting local like our bumper stickers
promised
V
& we drank first-generation Diet Coke & New Coke
& listened to Kajagoogoo
& the Valley rain pelt the glass
of our first cars each bead peeling
off a chip of chassis where even too shy shy shy
we kissed our first girls & first boys
& not our last as dome lights
dimmed
VI
Wait… what?
VII
& it was the end of the world as we knew it & I felt
kind of shitty if I’m being honest here & I was pissed
my dad died of cancer the same week Kurt Cobain
killed our generation off with selfish shots of bourbon &
gunfire
VIII
we made mixtapes of songs we liked for girls
we liked & boys we liked to express feelings
we weren’t sure we liked telling them they had lips
like sugar when others’ words spoke clearer
than ours like when we lost our religion
& weren’t sure we ever wanted to
find it
IX
& find me doubled over in the Blue Anchor’s parking
lot at closing time blacktop glistening under a turpentine moon
& a drizzle thickening & happy hour three-for-ones
regurgitate as murky texts typed in a shaky Uber home
& I delete them like junk mail
& boredom
X
& I set out to change the world but couldn’t find my way
with a map & where are my car keys anyway
& REM broke up
& it wasn’t the saddest
day of my life
I just stood alone for an hour
& breathed minor chords
off a plate of dusty sky
&
David Colodney is a poet living in Boynton Beach, Florida. He is author of the chapbook, Mimeograph, and his poetry has appeared in multiple journals. A two-time Pushcart nominee, David has written for the Miami Herald and the Tampa Tribune and currently serves as an associate editor of South Florida Poetry Journal.