Postcards from Teenage Years

For so many years, we drifted on a sea,
a sea of innocence.
Blind eyes shone brightly.
A world so distant was not missed.
We were happy.

A funny time this age, this age of awareness.
Adolescent frenzy, they say, I think.
Walking down blind alleys, drugged to death,
wrists slashed, stomachs pumped.
We were sad.

Then the revelation, we believed.
Responsibilities, no longer a pressure,
coping with problems a pleasure.
A lover so true, a friend so new.
We were happy.

But thought returned,
as a postcard from teenage years.
Question all your days it said.
So a reclined mind thought again,
‘Am I happy, am I sad?’
We were confused.

I thought about the soft skin that lay next to my cheek,
and the shining eyes that held so many loving tears,
and I wondered why this sweet child felt for me so strongly.
I discovered, we were real.
Life was a day with no yesterday and no tomorrow.
So I went to bed and slept soundly.
I was happy.

Edward says...

Isn't adolescence a time of frenzy! All those hormones exploding, all of those external influences twisting your melon man! And of course all you're really looking for in the end is love. So if you've got the sort of mind that implodes on itself with despair because you can't find what you're looking for, when you actually find it, your mind just can't cope. There's a sense of disbelief. This is where this poem comes in, when that point of exaltation is reached, there is such a sense of disbelief that something or someone has to come along and just tell you to think about what's happening, take a step back and check it out. Hence the image of a "Postcard from Teenage Years" dropping on your mat as a blast from the past saying "Hey look, this was as bad as it was, look what you've got now, appreciate it and smile you miserable f*cker!! Be happy!!". Edward.