Youth

by Daniel Arenson

This poem was first published in Orson Scott Card's Strong Verse in 2005.



Do we remember ourselves?

At fifteen, sitting in some basement,

Painting and listening to Rush

as outside holes burst in walls

spreading so slowly like disease.



The girls, somehow they always eluded us,

as we smoked for the first time

and prayed, pleaded, screamed

for this to end.



Please remember us,

now these weary, confused adults.

I still have those old cassettes

and those old paintings

and still I watch those holes spread.




Copyright ©  Daniel Arenson