Three Times Older

 

I was fourteen once.

I’m not anymore

I’ve stood in your lines;

classes concert tickets rides at Cedar Point

 

Now I sit in my lines:

waiting to merge into traffic at the latest construction zone at the DMV at the doctor’s Starbucks Border’s in the queue for Dell customer support where my call is very important to them.

 

Yeah, I was 14 once and scared of seniors teachers lunchroom ladies with their ladle;

now I pay my taxes drive the limit come to a complete stop at all crosswalks lather rinse repeat wait one hour before swimming be at the airport 2 hours before flight time take two every 6 hours.

 

Old.

           I feel worn down.

three feet from death I play with matches run with scissors eat rare meat

Because rules are rules. Some are guidelines.

 

If the unexamined life is not worth living I examine bugs in my teeth after driving too fast in a borrowed beemer ragtop I examine the rear of my shorts after I dump my bike and the road rash looks a belt sander got taken to my back and I know I’m still alive.

 

When I hear somebody bitch because they got a lousy parking place then I say that if a lousy parking place is the worst thing that happens to you today then you have had a helluva good day so I have a new rule:                                                                    if no else gets hurt then it’s good.      

                                                                 

Not being fourteen anymore means the practice drama is gone the real drama is now because a principal isn’t a judge and a troublemaker at 14 becomes a convict at 24 and the he said she said isn’t about a food fight it’s a custody fight where you are trying to give her the house so you can keep the kid.

 

So I might have been 14 once but rules are still rules do unto others is good and somehow

I am become 46.

Three times older.    Three times.  Three