Coming Of Age Bedtime Story
Ben Hickman · Portland Oregon, 2025 · Free Verse
"The things I love, I’ve loved before."
— — The Promise Ring, Nothing Feels Good
He saw Jesus in a piece of toast
and blew off football practice,
then told the girl he’d been orbiting
they couldn’t be friends anymore
because she was boring.
and blew off football practice,
then told the girl he’d been orbiting
they couldn’t be friends anymore
because she was boring.
He got a job mixing primer,
where men twice his age called him my man
and trusted him not to ruin the floor.
Nothing about this felt like falling behind.
where men twice his age called him my man
and trusted him not to ruin the floor.
Nothing about this felt like falling behind.
When no one asked what he planned to do with his life,
he answered anyway:
he answered anyway:
my man, things just have a way of working out.
Note
I wrote this because I wanted to try a coming-of-age story that actually resonates at forty. Not the kind where a teenager becomes who he wishes he were, but the kind where an adult looks back and realizes he wishes he’d just been calmer, less dramatic, less convinced everything was urgent. It’s a small satire on the idea that young people always need a grand arc, when sometimes being chill might have been enough.