Something Old - Lydia Gompper

Oh, to be you again. To be eight, ten,

thirteen. To be secure in the daily invariables,

the there-then-back-again, the nostalgia

for something barely gone. Oh,

to ache for the future, and not the past.

Please, oh please, let me cut another snowflake.

Let me buy a cherry slushie

with my mother’s money. Let me fall,

but never fail, and let me learn again

that skinned knees heal. Let me recall the password

to my voice-locked journal. Let me sing again.

Oh, fuck, let me sing again,

and let the lyrics be too old for me.

Let my notes be warbling and counter-pitch,

and let nobody mind.

They never minded, when I was you.

---

LYDIA GOMPPER is a 2022 graduate of Princeton University, where she studied history and theater. She now works in sales at Penguin Random House, following stints as a bookseller and publishing intern. She lives in Connecticut with her husband.