IT WAS VAST

Burr gone,
Cathy gone,
Chey, she perished in a fog
in Australia, and
Jimmy Mac came down with
something called AIDS.
Timmy Stewart hung himself
down by Walden Pond,
then Eric, in his house. Judy
was murdered, and Ginny
Kirshner died of cancer,
some years before Harriet
just wore out,
but they'll always be walking, with so
many others (oh, footsteps, footsteps!),
through the many old hallways in my
mind, down by Four Corners, up
the ramp, moments transcendent
in the cabin, courtyard birds all
a-twitter, so why call this a school
what was a universe to me, with
distances threading life to death,
too vast for a mere school-
house or the mind of a teacher
adrift in the ether of memory.

March 5, 2005

 


All written material © Bill Schechter, 2016
Contact Bill Schechter
Website by Altolus Digital