Sunday, September 7, 2014

Elegy

We are on borrowed time,
and it's not often when we know
last days as they are happening.

We've known one another for 15 years now,
since the 3 for a dollar necktie sale
at the Cleveland Street Salvation Army
the summer before I started teaching.

I wanted to look professional.
You and your friends wanted to help.
They're gone, and now I've noticed
you're a bit frayed at the knot,

kind of like I feel when standardized test
week approaches. You know what I mean.
So, what have we got left my old friend?
a lecture on the causes of the Cold War?

some discussion of Kennedy conspiracies?,
perhaps one last reading of "Letter from
a Birmingham Jail."  All in all, and I hope
you'd agree, it's been a good run.

Whatever we've got left, let's make it count.


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