WE ARE YOUNG
By A. R. Stager
So let us make contracts
in No. 2 pencil then take up
our little erasers. Let us boast
that we will be elite athletes, acrobats,
astronauts. Let us take Etch-a-Sketch
in hand and shake and illustrate again.
Let us pastel and fingerpaint
with promise and aplomb. Let us
appropriate refrigerator fronts. Let us
pit grandma against grandma until one
can no longer bid, and cash spills
from the pockets of our OshKosh bibs.
Let us make haste to buy up art
from neighbor kids, get good and fleeced
for bragging rights and spite. Let us luxuriate
in cushy fold-up chairs at Little League games,
sip Slush Puppies and cheer,
bedizened in blueberry lipstick.
At nap time let us read fairy tales
and believe them again,
leaving our kids behind
to pay bills and plan meals and jostle
for position. Let us live long enough
to become impermanent again.
A. R. Stager is from Akron, Ohio, and has lived in South Carolina, Korea, Switzerland, and Colorado. He has a PhD in divinity and a DMin in the sacred art of writing. He has published poetry in Ekstasis, Fare Forward, Rejection Letters, Dust Poetry, and elsewhere. He is a fly fishing guide, a counseling psychology student, and a pastor residing in Denver with his family.
