Cycles

Today is the last day of school and tonight is graduation.

This senior class is special to me; when they were freshmen, I was a rookie Vice Principal. I've learned more than a few things from these students over the past four years, and many have generously invited me into their lives. I never sat alone in the stands at a game, and a group of regulars joined me and the principal for lunch almost every day.

I will miss them.

The Class of 2010 heads off toward a new horizon and another crop prepares to appear on mine next year.

And so it goes.

Last Days of School

for my students, June 2000

these are the bittersweet
minutes and hours and days.
broncos at a rodeo,
we press against the rails
waiting for the floodgates of summer
to fling open,
so we can pour out into
the rivulets of our futures.
you struggle to contain yourselves,
pollen on the wind in spring,
as I vainly shout after:
pleas, chastens, and advice,
echoing, dissipating syllables.
the knowing of you
the training in your ways
the anticipation of your moods:
all this to be flung aside,
trapped in file folders
and faded memory.
in September the mystery starts anew:
someone else will discover you.