There’s a last time for everything.
Watching the clock count down
To New Year’s,
Surrounded by all your friends in varying states of sobriety;
The only time you can remember recently
Where you’ve been looking forward to time passing,
Egging it on to go faster and faster.
Shouting 3, 2, 1,
And hugging with such ferocity that only alcohol produces,
Or kissing if you’re lucky.
Desperately trying to preserve the moment,
As being here, on this spinning rock,
With the people who matter as you welcome a new era.
Watching the sun come up on a bright January morning.
There’s a last time for everything.
Sitting in your car boot with your nearest and dearest,
Drinking the cheapest alcohol you could find
As the sun goes down in a blaze
Of pinks and fiery orange.
Swatting at the sandflies and recounting
How you met, all the times you laughed until you cried,
All the times you held each other’s hair over the toilet,
All the times you knew what you had was good.
Thinking about where you’re all going next,
Laying your head on her shoulder,
Shedding a few tears onto the sand.
Waking up desperately hungover and tired,
But with a sense that you finally know where you stand in the world.
There’s a last time for everything.
Going to say goodnight to your parents
For the last time in your own home.
Finding them sitting a little misty-eyed, with a space
Left for you,
Just like there always used to be.
Climbing under the covers with them,
And watching whatever shitty sitcom is on the TV.
The whole family together, cat and all,
Well aware of the significance of the moment.
Leaving because you can’t take it anymore,
And they follow you downstairs,
And tuck you into bed and turn off the lights.
There’s a last time for everything.
Oh, isn’t there always.
Signing each other’s white shirts on the last day of school.
Shaking the headmaster’s hand at graduation.
Standing in the dawn with the white caps breaking and a friend at your side.
Oh yes, there’s a last time for it all.
There’s a last time for everything.
