I'm Too Young to Write a Poem

It would be offensive to write on singleness. 

I haven't learned to love the early quiet

in decades of mornings spent alone 

scrambling eggs and memorizing the

murmur of a waking apartment complex.

I can't write on the lifespan of a tragedy.

How an abandoned dream seeps into your

bones slowly like sun stroking furniture

into fade. How a death feels first like an

amputation. In time, an empty pocket.

I'm of an age where girls cry more at movies

than any true heartbreak & our parents 

are still middle aged & we've only known

two generations of family pets & boys

have been playmates longer than potentials.

I'm not even qualified to write on faith;

strong in the the theory of it, still stumbling

into practice. What do I know of dying

daily when I've just learned what death is? 

What have I sacrificed when I own nothing?

I'm too young to write a poem. 

         I'm still young enough to want to.

© Sarah Fletcher, 2013

"Getting Ready for the Movie"
Photo by Belinda Hankins Miller
from Wikimedia Images