Along the Way | Teen Ink

Along the Way MAG

November 29, 2008
By Andrew Dobies GOLD, Long Grove, Illinois
Andrew Dobies GOLD, Long Grove, Illinois
11 articles 0 photos 2 comments

How many faces and birthdays will I come to remember
before my eyes shut for the last time
and I find myself in that closet I hid in that smelled of laundry softener
in the third grade because I didn’t belong in a girl’s house?
How many fingers and palms and fingernails
will I see amid how many trees, swinging green and happy branches in the spring
like the clasped hands of middle aged lovers who left the kids at home with a babysitter
so they could go for an afternoon walk?
I imagine there will be enough smiles and enough tears
that if I wanted to I could flood the city of New York
and swim through those blurred lights in the dead of an August night
and sing along with the crickets and the distorted sound of drowned car horns.
Hopefully I’ll have a bag of forehead wrinkles and boxes full of voices
from teachers and friends and train conductors
who say the most unimportant things like “May I see your ticket?”
Hopefully there will be shoes and coats from parties
and sloppy kisses on doorsteps in cold January nights
where my breath will be visible in the air and the ice near my feet
will sparkle and gleam in the periodic flicker of the dying bulb
in her porch light.
Even if things go wrong,
at least there will be the smell of honeysuckle and sweat
in my mother’s hair as she held me to her chest as I came fresh from the womb
and there will always be those fluorescent lights.



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This article has 216 comments.


on Feb. 6 2012 at 5:06 pm
BraxtonLangstonChapman SILVER, Lexington, North Carolina
9 articles 0 photos 22 comments

Favorite Quote:
Dedication, Hard Work

This is really good I'm new at this and I need some feedback is there anyone who can comment on my work and tell me what needs to be different.

on Feb. 6 2012 at 2:29 pm
radicalchickster DIAMOND, Jericho, New York
52 articles 0 photos 14 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Never, ever, ever give up."

Who cares? It's poetry, it's not meant to be interpreted in some, real concrete way. I loved it. :)

on Feb. 6 2012 at 2:24 pm
SierraWilliston26 SILVER, East Liverpool, Ohio
5 articles 0 photos 4 comments
wow thats amazing to read something so true and so...how to put this...emotional. i loved it. :)

RTB5574 BRONZE said...
on Feb. 6 2012 at 11:33 am
RTB5574 BRONZE, Waukesha, Wisconsin
1 article 0 photos 4 comments

Favorite Quote:
"who's God"

melissa i love you

RTB5574 BRONZE said...
on Feb. 6 2012 at 11:32 am
RTB5574 BRONZE, Waukesha, Wisconsin
1 article 0 photos 4 comments

Favorite Quote:
"who's God"

hey sam how are you and zach doing nice comment

on Feb. 6 2012 at 11:21 am
laurapauline BRONZE, Waukesha, Wisconsin
1 article 0 photos 3 comments
Good imagery and word choice but I'm not sure what the message or meaning is that you're trying to get across

Gymnast1 said...
on Feb. 6 2012 at 11:19 am
Gymnast1, Waukesha, Wisconsin
0 articles 0 photos 2 comments
The poem was really good! There was a very good connection between lessons in life and getting old.

on Feb. 6 2012 at 10:42 am
ellscreamah96 BRONZE, Waukesha, Wisconsin
2 articles 0 photos 2 comments
I really enjoyed the ending to this poem! The beginning was a great hook and the end had a clear conclusion. Wonderful word choice and i could visual what you meant, and the emotions of life being too short. Good job!

on Feb. 6 2012 at 10:38 am
keely21soccer BRONZE, Waukesha, Wisconsin
1 article 0 photos 1 comment
Great word choice and how it's enjoying and embracing life to the fullest hoping they will. I loved how it said i hoped i had a bag full of wrinkles and boxes fulll of voices because most poeple dread getting old but in this poem it is hopeful to get old.

on Feb. 6 2012 at 9:44 am
melissa123 BRONZE, Waukesha, Wisconsin
1 article 0 photos 1 comment
very creative! meaning is kind of unclear though

on Feb. 6 2012 at 9:42 am
ellen5678 BRONZE, Waukesha, Wisconsin
1 article 0 photos 2 comments
great imagery and word choice!

on Feb. 6 2012 at 9:42 am
NonexistentRemedies BRONZE, Waukesha, Wisconsin
1 article 0 photos 2 comments
I love this, it reminds me of myself. It says a lot to me. It's almost as if you're saying it's as if you should live your life to the fullest and treasure all memories, no matter how little, like the guy who asked to see your ticket. This is a really amazing poem.

on Feb. 6 2012 at 9:38 am
Elmo1234 BRONZE, Waukesha, Wisconsin
1 article 1 photo 2 comments
I liked all the descriptive words and personification. This poem can be related to very easily and is very true.

on Jan. 15 2012 at 10:17 pm
Pamplemousse SILVER, Gilbert, Arizona
7 articles 1 photo 69 comments

Favorite Quote:
"To be happy, Don't do whatever you like, Like whatever you do" -James Barrie (author of Peter Pan)

Very Interesting. Not quite sure the whole meaning of it yet, but thats totally fine! Good job :)

on Jan. 15 2012 at 5:33 pm
Amber4141610 SILVER, Fairmount Heights, Maryland
5 articles 0 photos 6 comments

Favorite Quote:
To be nobody but yourself, in a world which is doing its best day and night to make you anyone else, means fighting the hardest battle which any human being can ever fight...And never stop fighting.
-E. E. Cummings

Wow, I've never read a poem so...true. It made me feel as if life holds meaning and purpose, even in the smallest flickers of light. Thank you, for that, really.

Fia-fia BRONZE said...
on Dec. 24 2011 at 9:57 pm
Fia-fia BRONZE, Bethesda, Maryland
4 articles 1 photo 157 comments
This is wonderful and extremely creative! I love it! Thank you! :)

on Dec. 24 2011 at 5:43 pm
Alex_Durham GOLD, Vineland, New Jersey
14 articles 1 photo 234 comments

Favorite Quote:
Do not go gentle into that good night. Rage, rage against the dying of the light.

WOW. This is amazing. I can only hope to one day write something this great!

on Dec. 24 2011 at 12:59 pm
Halolover54 BRONZE, Johnston, Iowa
1 article 1 photo 8 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Never give in"

I didnt really understand it though.

Presley96 said...
on Dec. 2 2011 at 9:45 pm
Presley96, Roseland, Virginia
0 articles 0 photos 12 comments

Favorite Quote:
There are people who laugh to show their fine teeth; and there are those who cry to show their good hearts.
Joseph Roux

This piece of poetry is a well though out....I like it and I know that you have a lot of potential just reading your works

on Dec. 2 2011 at 9:43 pm
katieyoung18 PLATINUM, Scottsboro, Alabama
33 articles 55 photos 14 comments

Favorite Quote:
dont let the fear of striking out keep you from playing the game.

its really good, i like the details,