that’s just the way life goes.

Photo by Liv Bruce on Unsplash

i’m listening to an artist sing the lyrical line,

“life’s better when there’s someone to

show you how” and i’m reminded

that there is no longer anyone

to show me how.

the problem with the status quo

is that it dupes us into subscribing

to a set standard of how life goes.

we come to trust the fact that our parents

will be here for us until we are old like them,

but i’m learning that this storyline is a work of

fiction. i am only in my twenties yet i parent

myself because my mom is no longer here

and my dad never was.

life is better when there’s someone to

show you how, but there is no standard

of how life goes. it ebbs and it flows —

sometimes, in directions we

oppose, but that’s just

the way life

goes.

☽