Back: A Grad Poem
By Uy Pham
To all my friends
You’ll find your way back here
from the distant future
leaving in front of the old red door
all your years of baggage
so much heavier than the backpack you used to wear
long before.
So you’ll enter
the past, weighing less
remembering more
while you wander the ancient hallways
walls adorned with gum bearing decades-old teeth marks
and suddenly you’ll hear
the clanging of locker doors
and then voices – teenage chitter-chatter
about pop quizzes and parties
echoing from the life you left behind
in all its bold carelessness
and you’ll be younger again
lines fading from your face
until you are once again yourself
scrubby hair, hoodie, dirty shoes
storming out of the red door, itching to build a new world
as the old closed
behind you.
To all my friends
You’ll find your way back here
from the distant future
leaving in front of the old red door
all your years of baggage
so much heavier than the backpack you used to wear
long before.
So you’ll enter
the past, weighing less
remembering more
while you wander the ancient hallways
walls adorned with gum bearing decades-old teeth marks
and suddenly you’ll hear
the clanging of locker doors
and then voices – teenage chitter-chatter
about pop quizzes and parties
echoing from the life you left behind
in all its bold carelessness
and you’ll be younger again
lines fading from your face
until you are once again yourself
scrubby hair, hoodie, dirty shoes
storming out of the red door, itching to build a new world
as the old closed
behind you.
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