Twenty-Three

Slow nights like these are ones worth remembering

I am filled to the brim with excitement

My eyes are heavy and sting

I feel a pit in my stomach

An aching in my chest

A boiling tea kettle rests in my sternum

My throat yearns to scream

My mind is racing

One thought after another

Clouds and thunder and lightning of content race within the walls of my skull

I will turn Twenty-Three in two days

No one really talks about Twenty-Three

Just another year to pass by, to live, to breathe

But I am ecstatic for Twenty-Three

It’s a number I never fathomed to reach

Never crossed my wondrous mind

I can feel twenty-three bubbling up inside of me ready to burst through the seams of my ageing body

Twenty-Three comes with no instructions

Zero expectations

Not much of a milestone

The following year is limitless

I can taste the freedom and whimsy of Twenty-Three

I was never a fan of sweet and salty but I’ve grown accustomed to change

And change is what I now crave

The bitter taste of the past pushes me forward

Punches me in the face quite frankly

Tomorrow is not guaranteed

Spacetime has left me bare

I am merely just a fawn learning how to stand on her restless feet

Stumbling through the days

Stopping to smell the lilacs that have just bloomed

Engulfed in their fragrance until I collapse

Enveloped in a blissful high

I am ready for Twenty-Three

For I have never been this desperate to live in the present with the satisfaction of undefined prospects