When
are you grown up?

Is it when
your poems stop rhyming?
When you stop believing
in religion,
or when you start thinking
that there is a God,
but that He took His hands off the wheel
a long time ago?
Is it when you realize
that adults
are more than willing to hurt you
and pretend that it's love?
Is it when you lie awake afterward thinking,
and feel the emptiness
of giving to a vacuum,
or when it hits you like a suckerpunch
that they're leaving you
and they just don't care?
When you hear
that a friend got tired of life,
or when they give you a piece
of their aborted attempt
to be like you?
Is it when
he whispers all the words
that mean "I love you,"
or when you believe him?

When
am I grown up?