Young

Live every day to its fullest’ they often say.

 

Making us feel guilty about lying in bed until

Two in the afternoon.

Desperately trying to

Peel the skin off the night before.

 

A stranger sprawled on the foreign bed beside us

Drool leaking into a pool of regret on the sheets.

His name a mash of unrelated letters your mind

Forgot to process.

 

Well, ‘you are only young once’. A perfect way to

Justify the unjustifiable, to file away the worst of

Yourself in the draw marked ‘Teenage Naivety.’

And the drink has made your mouth dry, your gums

Have started to crack and crumble and your tongue has turned

To dust. Your head is pounding, someone is trying

To get inside and whisper where you are

Going wrong.

 

The stranger moves, slithering between the sheets.

You feel sick and long for that house in the country

With the 1.8 children and a dog. A husband who

You have learned to love and resent in equal measure.

 

But, hey, you’ve got the rest of your life for that

Right? ‘Live for today’.

 

His eyes are beginning to

Flicker awake, you shiver as years of shame flood your

Body and shake you alive. Your bones beg you

To move, to run. To blanket yourself in last night’s

Clothes. To hide at the top of your favourite tree at

The bottom of your grandparent’s garden.

 

Too late, his blood bolted eyes have opened and

An awkward smile trembles on his lips. Words are useless.

No getting out of this one.

 

Let’s hope we are never, ‘forever young’.