Freshmen

We were always hungry then
and food would not sustain us
We turned to cigarettes and cheap beer
shallow philosophy and cheap literary allusions
and music in a thousand shades of sameness

We turned to desultory lovemaking
and mimicked elation and depression
We cried vacant tears when things ground to a halt
We were learning how to be ourselves

And still, participating, I stood apart;
Most of us were learning who we were
I was finding out who I had been.