The Ordinary Times

What Paul Said

- for Jim on his birthday.

It’s an old story we tell, the one when
we spent a whole summer on Tecmo Bowl,
unemployment checks and food stamps

buying champagne and OJ, and
you’ve heard a hundred times I’m sure
about when we’d watch the horses race

around the track they tore down last year
finally, you know where the new mall is now,
and how we dressed up, Jim had his scarf

patterned with hundred dollar bills and
I’ve told you about how we’d ride fast at night
our bodies low over our handlebars,

chasing some after party or secret show at
three in the morning, the fire of youth burning
down to embers behind our eyes and I know

it’s not proper, but it’s true
what Paul said about the burden of my generation–
it’s you.