Seventeen

To be seventeen again was once my fondest wish
To know what I know now and be so young but not so foolish
To feel the fire in my veins and no fear in my chest
To ride my motorcycle like I was destined to the be the best

To be able to watch the young girls through eyes not filtered by guilt
Majorettes marching at a half time show and not feel I should not notice how they are built
To walk the halls of my old high school and know how important the classes
To know how going to college would have changed my life, my choices, forever

To have the nerve to ask the prettiest girl to the prom, knowing what to say at every turn.
To be serious when it was necessary and to have fun when I could and not try to act so stern
To savor every moment as if it were the last because as I know now each moment was
To know that cool was just being who you were and not doing what everyone else does

But now at fifty, I look back and I would settle for reliving those days as ignorant as I was then
To live wild and free and be not be burdonded by what was to be in the future when
Maybe just a touch of self confidence would be nice, less introverted, less afraid
I could ride my motorcycle and not worry about what was yet to be, or the life I had made

Yet in my heart I can relive all the joys and sorrows of that time, even as they fade from my mind
All I have to do is think of the special things and it all becomes clear, the memories easy to find
At fifty on the outside in my heart I am still seventeen, still wanting to party with songs unsung
But my outside marks me as old, not to be trusted; I was guilty of the same when I was young

Drakon