a decade under the sun

the soul-crushing interviews,
the gut-wrenching jobs,
beer-soaked conversations
and weekly meetings
with boring people,
the petty friendships
and stale pastry,
the schedules,
the mind-numbing routine,
the vicious vendettas,
hot lunches on cold park benches,
books read in a trance on the subway,
the £5 chocolate cupcake scarfed down at the end of a long day,
a very long day,
swollen feet,
busted seams,
parched lips,
empty souls,
empty nights,
days filled with strangers
and pointless conversations,
Polish accents,
blond curls straightened heavily,
stuffed toilets,
cockroach-infested lunch rooms,
fart-soaked couches,
unanswered emails,
forgettable encounters with familiar strangers,
secrets revealed,
roads not taken,
dreams followed and forgotten,
memories so distant,
so far away…

It’s all coming back to me now.

My twenties,
gone faster than the speed of light.