Twenty-One (2011)

When I was only 17, I couldnt wait for 21.
I'd hang around on Clayton Street in the bars there getting drunk.
A baseball cap and a fake ID would get me in the clubs.
Then I would dance with the college girls and lie about who I was.
I'd say "
I'm pre-med here at UGA, live on Milledge Avenue, I was raised over in Buckhead, I drive a BMW." I was breaking hearts and taking names and numbers just for fun.
Stealing kisses, wishing I was 21.
Thursdays came and pocket change would quickly disappear.
Upstairs of Lowry's Tavern, we'd pay a nickel for a beer.
Shooting pool, smoking cigarettes, with a dizzy head and a grin.
At 4 am on a school night, still hanging out with my friends.
One hour's sleep on a dirty couch, no shower, off to school.
Smelling just like a brewery with a bad hangover too.
The teachers would all hassle me, "stay awake, pay attention." I was catching hell, wishing I was 21.
The youngest one of all my friends, I didn't act my age.
Too cool for the football games and the homecoming parades.
Now I'm somewhere in the gray of middle class and middle-age.
The man in the mirror looks more like my father every day, my clothes are out of fashion, my hair is getting thin.
My favorite conversation starts with "
I remember when..." Still we go down to that college town, dancing at the 80's bar.
We drink until we feel a whole lot cooler than we are, then I look at all those college girls, so innocent and young, and I just check them out and say "damn I wish I was 21".