A Way With Words Poem by Tim Larsen

Because I don’t understand
What it means
To utter those three words
Struck down by
Stop that, you don’t know what
Those 3 syllables mean

Because I’m too young
To utter it with my tongue
And not old enough
To understand anything
But watered-down history
And stupid songs

So when I’m old
Enough to say what
My heart wants to say
I’ll be sitting on my front porch
Gazing out at my pristine lawn
And telling myself
What went wrong
And I’ll be clutching onto
A photograph of
When I was young
Wondering to myself
Why they told me how to love