Growing Up Doesn’t Have to Hurt

A letter to my future self

by Salem Ilese:
Is Mr. Brightside still your favorite song?
And tell me, is your hair still blonde
or did you dye it pink?
Did it stain the bathroom sink?
Do you still spend sundays watching Friends
and writing notes you’ll never send?
And did you see the world and finally learn
that growing up doesn’t have to hurt?


by Collis Browne:
Do you live on several different coasts?
Do you still make coffee for you both?
Do you spend your summers in the sun?
Do you feel somehow you've won?

Did write those songs you started to?
Did you wipe your doubting heart and
expose the flowers underneath?
Do you still wear your silver teeth?

Do you still live closely with your girls?
Do you talk with them about their world?
Did you help them do you know for sure
that they felt the soft truth of your words and learned
That growing up didn’t have to hurt?
Cause growing up doesn’t have to hurt.