i was seven and my mother came to eat lunch with...

i was seven and my mother
came to eat lunch with me
at school, and when i saw her,
i started crying.

i was eleven and i learned
to use curse words so well
but every night, god’s guilt
made me pray for myself.

i was fourteen and scared
to death of how to stop my
hands from trembling at the
inner thigh of a girl.

i was sixteen and at a college
party, i coughed on my
cigarettes and didn’t know
how to open my beer.

i was eighteen and pissing
drunk in the woods under
the moon, trying to get lucky
but never did.

i am twenty and writing
poems about shit i really
don’t think about
anymore.

Two Straws