In just a few years our lives can change,
whether for better or worse I don't know.
But I feel that's the beauty of it,
the uncertainty.
But that's also the horror of it,
the uncertainty.
Where will I be in just a few years?
Where will you be?
With any luck we'll be
right where we want to be.
Parents, workers, scholars.
Newly married, married for years, or just engaged.
Finding out you're pregnant,
or that your partner is.
And going through life hand in hand with someone you love.
And I'll be doing what I do best,
being me.
Riding out every day bareback,
and coming home at night to find my family around the table,
faces tanned and flushed from the fresh air and the work we did together.
babies that look like me and my partner,
but at the same time nothing like us.
In just a few years I want my life to be like our senior prom.
Perfect.
Only with more kids.
Do you remember prom?
I think that's how we got the kid.
But,
then again,
maybe we'll get the sour end of the deal.
Maybe in a few years,
we'll be on the other side of those pearly gates,
watching our world rip apart at the seams,
and able to do nothing.
Maybe we'll be under the ground,
buried,
without having a say in the matter.
Or did we?
In a few years,
will life be so bad that we kill ourselves?
Or will it be worse?
Will we be addicts?
Drunks?
Criminals?
Rapists?
The saddest thing is that no one knows.
Where will I be in just a few years?
If I get the sour end of the deal, that is.
Will I be a prostitute,
selling my body for other peoples pleasure?
In other words, a whore, a slut.
Just a paid one.
Will I be dead?
Will I have to watch from above while my family goes through life without me?
If they do, will I have to watch them fall apart,
because,
in truth,
I'm the glue that holds us together.
The thing that keeps us going.
And another thought,
what if being dead in a few years isn't so bad?
What if we get cancer, or HIV,
and death is just a sweet release from pain?
That wouldn't be so bad,
death wouldn't be so bad.
I'd get to see Steven again,
and meet Wyoming and Walyn for the first time.
There wouldn't be any hurt up there.
So maybe it wouldn't be so bad.
But what of the world?
Where will it be in just a few years?
Will it be so covered in garbage that it kills people?
Will the Russians find some way to take over?
Will World War III be happening,
Will all goddamn hell be breaking loose?
No one knows,
no one cares to know.
But they wonder.
And even as I write these words,
I'm left wondering with them.
Where will we all be
in just a few years.

