This One’s for Paramore, Fall Out Boy, and Jimmy Eat World

A poetic trip down memory lane from the foothills of my old stomping grounds.

The white picket privilege of a crazy honors roll genius,

They tell me it was all experimenting and childhood angst

When all I wanted was a version of you who wanted me,

A teenage dirtbag and the crowned victor of our graduating class.

Work and play never mix the way we do,

But I don’t blame you because we still have time

And they say endings can be beautiful.

Sang “Hallelujah” to a dozen different chords in my bedroom

As I wished for a shade darker than black and love more true than fact,

Words from vagabonds are always woven with knives that leave scars,

I had to learn enough self-respect to let myself go,

Stomped upon a dozen wilting roses and the church gate key.

Ran on whiskey and hydrocodone throughout my years

At the University of Forsaken Cornfields with no love or honor,

Met my favorite people, learned the toughest lessons,

And became the best version of me after breathing fresh air.

Strengthened pain tolerance from a dozen rug pulls and trap doors,

Erased my photographic memory to start back at Stage One

Only to find earworms of deep sea trauma and saffron sadness

Can never be fully reset as the emo punk radio in the background

Of my almost thirties tugs at strings previously severed with dreams deferred.

A complex ecosystem where predators outweigh the prey,

I began digging a zig zag path out, never stopped the flight of anxious moles.

He said no. I brushed it aside with the recycled quicksand.

She blocked my name. I huffed for a moment before building my wall taller.

Brick by same-old boring red brick

Babe, the rollercoaster is leaving the track,

I’m going down with the turbulence,

But thank you for the sugarcoated memories

In the middle of the hailstorm,

One day it’ll be alright and the anthem our descendants harmonize

Will resonate with the full scale, not exclusively egomaniacal mi.

~

New book coming soon that explores coming of age as a Zillenial during the first two decades of the 2000s. Go down the path less traveled with me through the playlist below full of my favorites from over the years.