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.



Similar Articles

JOIN THE DISCUSSION

This article has 216 comments.


on Aug. 14 2011 at 11:02 pm
HateKnuckle SILVER, Peru, New York
9 articles 0 photos 96 comments
I hate to be generic but that was awesome. 5 stars. You captured the randomness of life quite well with events that weren't iconic but are symbolic of life.

on Aug. 14 2011 at 10:21 pm
Lola_Black GOLD, Harrison, Michigan
11 articles 2 photos 276 comments

Favorite Quote:
"I've always been famous. It's just everybody's just now finding out." --Lady Gaga

Simply amazing! By the way, please read some of my poems! (thanks)

on Aug. 14 2011 at 7:57 pm
Laura_Oliver GOLD, Manchester, Connecticut
12 articles 2 photos 122 comments
This is a really sweet poem. I can tell you worked really hard on this. And please check out my poems, like "True Colors" and "When the Storm Will Come"!!!

on Aug. 14 2011 at 6:21 pm
emilybwrites SILVER, Villa Hills, Kentucky
5 articles 0 photos 112 comments

Favorite Quote:
last night i lay in bed, looking up at the stars and i thought to myself, where the heck is the ceiling?

it IS number one now lol :)

on Aug. 14 2011 at 6:20 pm
emilybwrites SILVER, Villa Hills, Kentucky
5 articles 0 photos 112 comments

Favorite Quote:
last night i lay in bed, looking up at the stars and i thought to myself, where the heck is the ceiling?

wow i loved this so much!!! i esp loved the line "will sparkle and gleam in the periodic flicker of the dying bulb". could you check out my poem "Forgotten Domain" and comment/rate it? it would be great!

on Aug. 14 2011 at 4:33 pm
gossimergrrl BRONZE, Grosse Ile, Michigan
3 articles 1 photo 24 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Hamlet: Oh God, I could be bounded in a nutshell and count myself a king of infinite space, were it not that I have bad dreams." -William Shakespeare

Wow this is really beautiful. I luv the "boxes full of voices".

on Aug. 14 2011 at 1:04 pm
ElleNicole BRONZE, St. Louis, Missouri
2 articles 0 photos 107 comments

Favorite Quote:
"My role in society, or any artist's or poet's role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all."

This is really good. =)

Check out my poems? Thanks!


on Aug. 14 2011 at 11:38 am
EyesofBlueFire GOLD, Belleville, Illinois
15 articles 0 photos 37 comments

Favorite Quote:
"We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided." Dumbledore, Harry Potter, J.K. Rowling.

This poem was thoughtful. I connected with it, and I love how it ends. Keep up your writing, never lose that spark. :) Feel free to comment on some of my work as well.

on Aug. 14 2011 at 2:54 am
RaindropsCatcher GOLD, Sofia, Other
16 articles 0 photos 18 comments

Favorite Quote:
“I laugh, I love, I hope, I try, I hurt, I need, I fear, I cry. And I know you do the same things too, So we're really not that different, me and you.”

I especially liked the end. Returning back to where you started before you go away. Good job and great write.

on Aug. 3 2011 at 9:40 am
FrancescaHandy BRONZE, Waterloo, Other
1 article 0 photos 1 comment
I really like this poem! You did a great job of capturing a feeling that I think everyone gets when they think about the future.

on Jul. 23 2011 at 11:12 pm
Dragonfly_Girl PLATINUM, Pleasant Hill, California
21 articles 0 photos 25 comments

Favorite Quote:
Life is not waiting for the storm to pass, but learning to dance in the rain.

I love this! Beautiful! :)

on Jul. 23 2011 at 9:04 pm
inkblot13 PLATINUM, Auburn, New York
41 articles 1 photo 160 comments

Favorite Quote:
"If I knew where poems came from, I'd go there"




- Michael Langley, 'Staying Alive'

this may be the third time I've posted a comment on this poem, but I can't help it... It's way too awesome!!!!! :D

Hey, check out some of my stuff??


MakaylaS. GOLD said...
on Jul. 6 2011 at 4:32 pm
MakaylaS. GOLD, Fairfax, Virginia
13 articles 0 photos 20 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Starve a Bully, Feed your Soul, STAND GRAND." -Vincent Castronovo

This is such a lovely poem :) I loved it! especially the last three lines!

on Jul. 1 2011 at 1:48 pm
SweetPolarBearHugs PLATINUM, New York, New York
27 articles 0 photos 75 comments

Favorite Quote:
"All conflict in literature is, in its simplest form, a struggle between good and evil." - unknown author.
"All that we see or seem
Is but a dream within a dream." - Edgar Allan Poe

This poem is so beautiful

on Jul. 1 2011 at 12:26 pm
TolkienLewisWhitman BRONZE, Millersburg, Ohio
2 articles 0 photos 9 comments

Favorite Quote:
"All of my posessions for a moment of time." ~ Queen Elizabeth I

This is beautiful! This poem deserves to be number one!

on Jun. 10 2011 at 12:01 am
joyfuldancer SILVER, Easton, Maryland
6 articles 0 photos 17 comments

Favorite Quote:
I'm not a perfect person, I'm a forgiven person.

such a beautiful poem

on Jun. 9 2011 at 6:49 pm
ThatCrazyChick BRONZE, Las Vegas, Nevada
1 article 0 photos 3 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Keep your eyes fixed on the sun"

That was a beautiful poem. I could picture everything you said. So beautiful.

on May. 18 2011 at 11:31 am
Shortblueeyes224 DIAMOND, Auburntown, Tennessee
57 articles 0 photos 76 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Are We Happy Plastic People"- Casting Crowns "While we're sung to sleep by philosophies that save the trees and kill the children" - Casting Crowns "It's such a secret place, the land of tears"Antoine de Saint-Exupery

I liked your poem alot. It was deep.

on May. 2 2011 at 3:19 pm
RideTheWave BRONZE, South Riding, Virginia
4 articles 0 photos 30 comments
that was awesome. i am so sorry for your loss. it is really very well written, but people write their best when they feel something

on May. 1 2011 at 2:59 pm
RideTheWave BRONZE, South Riding, Virginia
4 articles 0 photos 30 comments
cool! i am gonna go check em out soon and i will give you feedback when i am done!