Someday
I am going to be a kick-ass grandmother.
Just wait. I’ll have grown-up mojo over 9000
I’ll say whatever the hell I want to
Because someday
There won’t be anyone older to complain.
Someday I will tell all those awful stories about “flip phones”
and “BuzzFeed”
and “bluetooth”
and when I run out of memories about snail mail and VHS tapes and walking uphill to school
both ways
barefoot
in the snow
Because in the end I think there are some things that never change.
Someday I am going to be a middle-aged woman.
Wean teeny children into teenagers on the teddy bears of the future–
Someday I will be a new mother.
Meet my partner’s eyes over a knee-high ball of perfect and fall exhausted into an unmade bed
Place my hands over a rounded stomach and feel new life pulse inside of me
And get up to go to the bathroom one more time
but
Before that (I promise) I will be a college student
Throw off the mantle of my loving/hated parents and then reach backwards to lift it ill-fittingly
on
Squish the memories down when I pack my bags so they fit inside a standard carry-on
And find them flattened smooth like pressed flowers when the contents may have shifted during
flight
Well.
It’s early, still.
Mom always did say I jump into things;
I suppose that’s more than enough dreaming before dinner.
Jocelyn Olum is a writer, a student, and a circus performer. She grew up in Boston, Massachusetts, where she was awarded both Gold and Silver Keys from the Regional Scholastic Writing Awards for Poetry. Her work has been featured in Red Eft Review and is forthcoming in Eunoia Review.