[Poetry] Distances
Sep. 12th, 2010 01:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jon_chaissonIt seems distances change over time,
When it takes forever
To get somewhere when you're five,
You're far way from home at eight,
And by ten a mile or so is nothing.
By your early teen years,
Being halfway across town is the norm,
By your senior year you're on roadtrips
Down to the mall with your friends.
College is all about distances:
How far it is from your dorm to class.
When to grab the subway to make the movie in time.
Where the closest bus stop is to your friend's house.
How long the train will take to get you home
and if your ride will be there to pick you up.
By your early twenties you're walking everywhere,
Too broke for a car, and just enough for bus fare.
You carry your groceries, you carry your backpack
You shuffle each day to your mindless job across town.
But you don't mind that when you've got your Walkman.
By your late twenties you've boomeranged back home,
And you're borrowing the family car on the weekends,
To escape from your pathetic existence as a Gen-X failure.
Your distances are covered within the confines
Of other peoples' schedules and your own meager paychecks.
A few years later you've got your own beater,
And a few hundred miles a week is nothing at all.
You don't mind the fifty-mile commute to your new job.
You love the hour-long drive into the city, especially at night.
Half your adult life is spent heading one place or another.
By your early thirties you've got a stable job,
Possibly a wife and eventually a kid on the way,
And you'd rather be in the basement or the backroom
Writing away instead of driving to your favorite shops,
Convincing yourself you hate looking for somewhere to park.
Nearing forty...
In the back of your mind, you think you should be walking
And you have no excuse not to, your neighborhood's great for it.
And yet the idea of twenty short blocks to the library
Or the ten to the Starbucks on Geary makes you twitch
And you've become sedentary and out of shape.
But you do it all anyway, because it's good for you.
You do it all because, despite the griping, you enjoy it.
You do it because it keeps you alive.
Despite the distances.
[x-posted from my Dreamwidth blog]
When it takes forever
To get somewhere when you're five,
You're far way from home at eight,
And by ten a mile or so is nothing.
By your early teen years,
Being halfway across town is the norm,
By your senior year you're on roadtrips
Down to the mall with your friends.
College is all about distances:
How far it is from your dorm to class.
When to grab the subway to make the movie in time.
Where the closest bus stop is to your friend's house.
How long the train will take to get you home
and if your ride will be there to pick you up.
By your early twenties you're walking everywhere,
Too broke for a car, and just enough for bus fare.
You carry your groceries, you carry your backpack
You shuffle each day to your mindless job across town.
But you don't mind that when you've got your Walkman.
By your late twenties you've boomeranged back home,
And you're borrowing the family car on the weekends,
To escape from your pathetic existence as a Gen-X failure.
Your distances are covered within the confines
Of other peoples' schedules and your own meager paychecks.
A few years later you've got your own beater,
And a few hundred miles a week is nothing at all.
You don't mind the fifty-mile commute to your new job.
You love the hour-long drive into the city, especially at night.
Half your adult life is spent heading one place or another.
By your early thirties you've got a stable job,
Possibly a wife and eventually a kid on the way,
And you'd rather be in the basement or the backroom
Writing away instead of driving to your favorite shops,
Convincing yourself you hate looking for somewhere to park.
Nearing forty...
In the back of your mind, you think you should be walking
And you have no excuse not to, your neighborhood's great for it.
And yet the idea of twenty short blocks to the library
Or the ten to the Starbucks on Geary makes you twitch
And you've become sedentary and out of shape.
But you do it all anyway, because it's good for you.
You do it all because, despite the griping, you enjoy it.
You do it because it keeps you alive.
Despite the distances.
[x-posted from my Dreamwidth blog]
