I shine my armor and sharpen my sword,
Leaving the castle on a quest once more.
I save some damsels once in distress,
I put raging dragons to a permanent rest.

My intentions are pure – to save them all,
But I won’t be the hero everyone wants to call.
Perhaps those damsels never wanted to be saved,
And dragons slain leave cities razed.

There’ll be legends whispered about me at night,
Each storyteller telling it slightly right.
And though their tales may change with the years,
I’ve made my peace with how I appear.

It’s like that first time you smoke a cigarette with your friends-
a little gross, but you feel so cool.

Or the first time you flash your
I.D. at the bar,
not knowing what to order, but loving the freedom to choose.

When you’re gripping the steering wheel so tight your knuckles turn white,
finally feeling tires touch concrete that isn’t a parking lot.

Decorating that ****** apartment,
paying the first month’s rent-
broke, yet so **** proud.

Holding your diploma in
trembling hands,
a piece of paper most people get,
but this one has your name on it.

That first day everything clicks at work,
a shift so smooth it’s forgotten on the rough days that follow.

That first kiss under the stars,
dopamine shockwaves flooding
every nerve-
you’ll stay up for days on the memory.

Even the devastating realization
that nothing lasts forever,
laying in bed as rain beats
against your window,
music reverberating through a hollow chest.