In My Late 20s

by Wayne Benson Jr.

“it’s all downhill from here” I used to say this as if I’d reached the top of something and there was always someone to say there is life and death in the tongue! but coming out now, maybe on the other side of disillusion downhill seems such a lighter walk. It was worse before trying to know the difference between pain that is growing and that which grows from standing still—and still at times I am the wrong side my life is forced to wake on— The problem has always been assuming light was only at the end of the tunnel “it’s all downhill from here” I used to say this as if I’d reached the top of something and there was always someone to say there is life and death in the tongue! but coming out now, maybe on the other side of disillusion downhill seems such a lighter walk. It was worse before trying to know the difference between pain that is growing and that which grows from standing still—and still at times I am the wrong side

my life is forced to wake on— The problem has always been assuming light was only at the end of the tunnel

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Wayne Benson is a poet and editor from Pennsylvania. He earned his MFA with the Maslow Family Graduate Program in Creative Writing at Wilkes University. Wayne runs his own podcast, Basement Poetry Podcast, where he talks about poetry in his basement. Wayne currently has poems published in CP Quarterly, perhappened magazine, Stick Figure Poetry, and The Elevation Review. Find Wayne @Wayney_Gang on both Twitter and Instagram.