charleston chew

Now, come on, you had to know I was going to use that line as a title to a post at least once during this onslaught of youthful memory poems? Right? Right!

Charleston Times 6

when I went down to Chicago land and

came back

and then decided Austin was

all that could

ever be,

he balked and Josh balked too

and I failed

and flopped around in gym shorts

on my parent’s front lawn.

we said

oh doom and destiny

and couldn’t step over ourselves fast enough to

get back downtown Charleston and

make a life of cheap

apartments and hardwood floors and

late night parties

and girls that were

jealous and poetry readings that

were fast and easy and ridiculed and beloved.

but when I set sail for the new country,

an evening’s party

captured me, and she was there,

and those people were there,

and my brother’s roommate was there

snorting,

and we all fell into the sea and said it is better

to drown than to wade, better

to drench than to soak.

but when I finally woke up in my parent’s house

for the last time, I knew

of only a girl’s legs and how to smash

a beer bottle over my head.