This was my graduating class if 1984

We did not look too far ahead 

For nothing seemed to be for us

The way it had been for our predecessors 

But we did not dare look back

Because the past had been a pain

We were semi-buddhists 3ven th3n

We wanted to live in the now

But our now sucked

And so we dissociated ourselves from all of that

And lived in an imagined place

Called Getting By

We regained reality

Only when we wanted to buy a candy bar or a coke

Where we visited our old chum

Who’d quit our class, and also quit school 

And by now, had worked so long at the convenience store

He had seniority and made good money at only age 16

He went on to buy the store

He still owns it to this day

He’s bought a few more

And occasionally he gets a good hard worker

Who has quit school like he did 

He watches them to see if they might make a good manager

And maybe someday buy into his franchise

We had twenty in our class

Nineteen graduated

Not too bad of a percentage they say

But that One out of One

Who knew already what was going on at twelve years old

He’s batting a thousand as far as I can tell

-jenn