Twenty-One

A Poem By Joy Aletheia Stevens

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At One, Two, and Three,
A lil’ babe, contented to be.
But as a child of Four,
Dreams of princes and castles galore!

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At Five the girl decides
“I shall be a princes bride!”
And so the dreaming begins,
At the core of her heart, the rose bud within.

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Of castles and princesses,
Hero’s and loves first kisses,
Such dreams, sweat and mild,
Are the dreams of a Six-Year-Old child.

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At Seven and Eight,
The girl dreams of fate.
A horse and his rider,
Nothing could take her dreams higher!

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At Nine and Ten she dreams of ‘her’ day,
With a groom she rides into the sunset.
When Eleven her colors she knows are bright and gay,
At Twelve she’s chosen her vows, though no groom as yet.

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At Thirteen the vigil begins,
Insanity seems to win
As she watches them all.
When will her groom call?

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Fourteen and Fifteen, who can describe those years?
A confusion of emotion a torrent of tears!
Sixteen brings despair, “No one destined for me!”
Seventeen, frustration, “Forever alone I will be.”

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At Eighteen, to busy is she
For such trivial things.
At Nineteen, impatient for he,
But helpless to unravel her wings.

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At Twenty, insistent is she,
A woman of means she will be.
But at Twenty-One love tenderly turns the key,
The bud now a rose destined for he.

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No castles no turrets.
No horses no sunsets.
Colors don’t matter, vows hold new tone,
As she says, “I’ll marry you and you alone.”

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I was a bit younger than Twenty-One when I wrote this piece and you can tell just what kind of romantic I was. It’s amusing, however, when I realize that it was just a few months before my twenty-first birthday that my now husband moved down to the area in order to get to know me better. (We met online and had only visited each other before then about half a-dozen times or so) I didn’t get married at Twenty-One, no, I got married at Twenty-Two.

Yes, I’m highly amused at young self right now.

I’m turning Twenty-Nine this Sunday, I wonder if I can remember where I thought I’d be now and how it matches up?

~Joy Aletheia Stevens

Photo Credit: YOUNG Love by Nina Matthews (CC BY 2.0)