Revolution

[Written: Sydney, 15/11/94 and 22/8/07]By Adam Gibson ©

when i was a teenager i believed that
i was younger than people who were
actually my own age or even younger
and on the day i turned 18
i can remember a specific moment:

i was driving my mum's
blue Pulsar hatchback
down William Street, Sydney.

i was stopped at a red light
minding my own business
when a car-load of girls
pulled up in the next lane.

they looked at me
and I looked at them
and then suddenly two of them
in unison shouted "woo-hoo!" at me

i interpreted the sound to mean
they approved of me in some respect,
that they maybe thought I was cute.

then they disappeared off into the traffic
and off into the subsequent years

but i remember thinking,
"i'm 18, i'm a man,
the world is mine to be had
and so are girls."

it was both a revelation and a revolution,
one from which I am still wearing the scars,
and indeed fighting the battles,
to this day