“You thought you were done with this didn’t you?”
You think as you pull yourself off the icy road
and hobble into your dorm
On the eve of your 19th birthday
Pull out the hydrogen peroxide
and watch it sizzle on your knee
Somehow closer to nine than nineteen
The child in you has always sat close to the surface
Blood, ready to ooze out of a fresh wound
You’ll remember this later
When you grin
At the off-key rendition
of the birthday song
Even a year into adulthood
You still need them to sing
Still need the ice cream,
although now it’s dairy free
Still need to wear your pajamas,
although now they’re a hoodie and leggings
Still need the world
To tell you how much it loves you
Still love it back
and even when you fall
Onto the cold, unforgiving ground
You stand back up
And assess the scrape
Remedy Ryan ’21 (remedyryan@college.harvard.edu) just turned nineteen.