It has only been a year since I had graduated college
And in that time much has happened
My father is dead
My eldest sister pregnant with a little boy
My brother shows grey hairs in his curls
My other sister has more degrees than she knows what do with them
and my mother wishes I come home more often

My friends no longer call as often
I have lost a sense of hope
I once held as a treasure close to my chest
somewhere along the walks home from bars
and in the absence of someone lost long ago
I had forgotten what it was like to live

So I pay my bills with gritted teeth
and I sip my morning coffee in the early mornings
I hide the emerging fat around my waist
with sweatshirts that too small for my arms
It seems like I just graduated
and it seems not so long ago
I had an understanding on how this life is supposed to go

But the alarm clock rings every morning
and the drinks still pour from their taps
lonely bar seats are only temporary
and it won't be long
before I feel like it was not so long ago
when I had felt so lost