You Ain't Lived Yet

And you ain’t lived yet, not til
You’ve jumped from an aeroplane
With your arms out wide
And no one at your back.
You ain’t lived yet, not til
You’ve stood with a mountain
Beneath your feet and felt
The rumble of the earth
And breathed air so damn sharp
It makes your lungs bleed
And the eagles look up at you.
 
You ain’t yet lived
Until you don’t damn well care:
Dressed up like a queen,
Dressed down like a tramp
Grinning in a flash
And flashing with a grin:
You ain’t lived yet, love.
 
Kiss the wrong boy at the wrong party
And walk ten or twelve blocks
With your head screwed loose
And holes in your socks,
Shoes in hand, and wonder if
Maybe it would have been a good idea
To kiss his girlfriend too?
Brush the hem of living
At somewhere past five in the morning.
 
You ain’t lived yet, not til
You’ve watched the sea claim your footsteps
And sworn at your mother
And smiled at your lover;
Not til the world looked back at you
And saw you smiled for real.
 
A hundred and nine, without the real,
And you’ve not lived yet.
Twenty and a hundred reals,
And you’ve lived a hundred times.