HIGH SCHOOL

Before the Shortline
takes them to the front
my hero parents cry,
Bye! Have a good day!
and send me forth
to congregate by the football field
to smoke and shoot the breeze
and make out somehow.
Here, childhood dies umourned.
Gather the necessary 'what';
'why' is not on the test.
I have my symbols:
Gay, Straight, Guess, Grateful Dead.
I attend disappointing seances
on the leather of dad's Mercedes,
go on AmEX pilrimages to Europe.
Even at the Salisbury Plain
when the solstice pours over the dolmens
there is no escape.
I was born to fall in step,
singing.

--Ann Ahnemann









Before the Shortline
takes them to the front
my hero parents cry,
Bye! Have a good day!
and send me forth
to congregate by the football field
to smoke and shoot the breeze
and make out somehow.
Here, childhood dies umourned.
Gather the necessary 'what';
'why' is not on the test.
I have my symbols:
Gay, Straight, Guess, Grateful Dead.
I attend disappointing seances
on the leather of dad's Mercedes,
go on AmEX pilrimages to Europe.
Even at the Salisbury Plain
when the solstice pours over the dolmens
there is no escape.
I was born to fall in step,
singing.

--Ann Ahnemann