24; I don’t like this age, it tastes like stunted growth, like bitter fruit too young / I remember bourbon street: we hardly drank and talked about being with men of different color than us / how dangerous it is to be a woman regardless of nation / America and our shame / love and losing it /  I then drove non stop for two days but I should have slowed, I should have taken my time / they were the most beautiful clouds I had ever seen

but somehow it was May and I was in love again

I should have swallowed those storms on that bridge in Louisiana like I wanted / soaked with my time alone / or let myself make mistakes, not be so available / in Raleigh, I dreamt of short hair, buzzed to the bone / in the Banks the milky orange and lonely green of the night wouldn’t let me sleep / my South Carolina highway liberation exalted me back / and now I suppose I’m home