“Youth”

“Youth”

Youth dreams beyond the youth

to a violent episode, wrapped in canaries,

a carnation taught to flower every year.

It wasn’t only for pretend

this job seeped through you,

exploding your core with delirious

“I remember you”s

from backyard barbecues

before we gave up on our addictions

braved a sigh of crooked stars

erased the miserable

mistletoe shadows from out our face.

Come run with the beasts and us,

our legs are shuddering

torn through the nylon

every mask of a robber’s self-hatred

turns up the gas for awhile

we’re mitten feet

and the icicles stopped

to talk to us

so mulberry and bristle

there’s a steel-brush cave

and a mill yonder.

Let’s ride horses

pass into the saddles

for frogs with leather hearts

know what business is happiness

grown kinder but always wrong

a delicate feather traps strong hearts

and know the carriage slows down

only for the foolish

only how we wished we’d been.

Tags: Nicholaus Patnaude, poem, poetry, youth