Seventeen alright
never learned to snap
never learned to think straight
i drum drum drum my fingers on the table
i tap tap tap my pencil on the desk
i skim headlines for horoscopes
scan classics for summaries
skid grimy sneakers on the marble floor

I measure my life in summertimes and other times
I bother to count up the hours
I make a lot of lists like
what i want
what i need
and places to go to get out of this place
which is home,
which i love,
which is sort of sickly sweet in that way
that’s better off in small doses

Quick quick, I think to myself sometimes
for I’ve been told,
that seventeen is the kind of lightning you’ve gotta snatch
but I was never that kind,
and I worry you can tell

I count hours, leisurely to the eyes
anxiously beneath the skin
wanting to be a lot of things
I debate the change inside my head

Sitting on bus seats and riding and sitting and waiting and waiting.
Sitting on bus seats and leaning sinking minds on windowpanes.

This is much less electric than the movies I say
rather far less electric than going nowhere fast
is going nowhere
very
very
slowly.

These things,
they are choppy and
Sometimes, I think
I don’t know where they went
Shove them in the sink till morning
Pray somebody picks them up .