Twenty-Four
(Take on a Theme for English B)

This was spawned by a college English assignment, to write a response to Langston Hughes' Theme for English B. So here it is.

I'm twenty-four, and red-haired,
if that matters at all--somebody
back somewhere in my family was Irish,
because I look it,
but not so close I talk like it.
I don't stick to much,
create too many worlds in my head,
and don't pay enough attention to the one I live in--
or so that's what they tell me, but why not
live in new better worlds if you can make them?
I write, I write, I write--
sometimes people read it,
or I sing it to guitar at the coffee-shoppe on Pearl
and people say we're good, but we know
we're not ever going to leave here.

I was in love once, but I'm not anymore--
I think I'm scared to be again, or else
it takes a while for a heart to grow back so much
that it's ripe enough to pick off the vine
and give away again.
Almost everything can be compared to hearts.

I've been all over,
gotten some stories to tell.
I've been stranded in Europe,
begging money from strangers on subways
and walking through cracked grey alleys
but I never had to find a place to sleep.
And after that,
I'm not scared of anything.
That's the secret--once you've done enough,
you know you'll make it,
and nothing's scary anymore...
except maybe being too young at twenty-four.