Lavender
Lavender
Oct 22, 2022

I Was Once Eighteen

I believe I will dance
perhaps later
perhaps now

dance away from this
unsatisfying pasta
into the night
while deflowering my
blackberry wine

off into the grass
now cool with the evening
under the moon, longing
to shine for me when I know
just how hard it is, sometimes
to shine

I once knew how to plie`
first position, second position
a young woman
who had not yet met herself
clothed in a wardrobe of yesterdays

when eighteen looked
ever so lovely
in mirror after mirror after mirror
when dreams were birthed
with wild, glorious epicurean expectations

and rendezvous laughed just over the horizon
ready to rise into the most lavish of memories
the best of what was to become my stolen days

perhaps I will dance
both now and later
dance away from the truth in the mirrors
away from the dreams, stillborn and forgotten

recall and remember the plie`
first position, second position
the feel of the floor's intimacy caressing my feet
the euphoria aflame beneath the surface of my skin

yet within these remembrances
I hesitate to declare
if this smile I wear, so sweetly
is from the temptation to dance
uninhibitedly with this revealing moon
or from the ecstasy and fulfilled bliss of my
blackberry wine
***

About This Poem

Last Few Words: After an evening spent with my young adult twin granddaughters, dining, observing and remembering what it was like to be the much younger version of myself. (Sigh...)

Style/Type: Free verse

Review Request Intensity: I appreciate moderate constructive criticism

Editing Stage: Editing - rough draft

About the Author

Country/Region: United States

Favorite Poets: I tend to read Ted Kooser

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Comments

Rosewood Apothecary

“off into the grass
now cool with the evening
under the moon, longing
to shine for me when I know
just how hard it is, sometimes
to shine”

If I had to pick something that stood out that’s it. That’s where I was drawn in. The rest just got better and better. May I share this with my sister?

Tim

Lavender

This one seemed to take on a "voice" of its own. I am so glad you stopped in to read it.
Thank you!
L

Geezer

I have many favorites from you, I can almost believe that this is my favorite, favorite of yours. Eloquence does not come to me very often and when it does, I try to grasp it firmly. This does not need grasping at all, it clings to my brain as a memory of great taste to the tongue. ~ Geez.
.

lovedly

Nostalgia over powers me I have grand daughters one past those long gone teens but never the light of that kind of teen seen another has just swum across the channel of time I wonder why we were those ancient beings compared to the current times They marvel me though mostly san ...but still the growing teen even though time has cracked my mirrors exotic many times but still nearing the estuary of oceanic time I still mime as if I were that eighteen still transfixed in the bloated ecstatic mind not dulled yet ...Hope our fresher teens will more advanced once be as mirrors of time continue to crack every moment ...Nostalgia is the black berry which white wine does merry believe me

thnx Lav for such a reality

lovedly

hope your many such educative poetry's
are selected by Gee
I once composed such a poem
''You Just Can't''
the poetess authoress loved it
I gave it free for her poem book

Girls since ages thence and now hence
will always never realize after time it happens
till time dies

never mind each was born free to live free
and as YUL BRYNER has already said
ONE DIES ALONE
BORN AND LIVES alone......