Youth

(4-12 March 1989) after Walt Whitman

When father was a young man I decided I would never get old if growing up was getting mean disappointed and angry with life knowing already, unwilling to learn suffering from my foolish choices. When father was a young man I wasn’t going to be an artist, I wasn’t going to pay attention, I wasn’t going to be afraid. I knew all I had to know, so it was easy to decide. When father was a young man I thought we’d never get old. When it hasn’t happened to you it’s only an analogy.