Camelot .. poetry

Camelot

They were days we thought would never end

We were filled with all the wisdom

Fifteen or sixteen years could impart

Our kingdom was just a bus ride away

We navigated the obstacles with the ease of familiarity

We made friends with wondrous ease

We fell head over heels in love,

Sometimes more than once a week

Some of us found lifelong loves and partners

Some of us found lifelong callings and careers

We honed the basic life skills we learned in kindergarten

We found allies and rivals

We understood everything completely differently than we do today

We were living in Camelot and never knew

We called it by its dreaded nom de plume, high school

If it were a lifetime as we surmised,

We have lived more than two others since then

We learned who we are by learning who we were in History class

We learned the whys and how’s of the world’s workings in Science class

We learned the beauty and majesty of life

And how to capture it in English class

We learned that, although everything is life does not,

Everything in Math class does add up

We learned about the caste system in the cafeteria

We learned survival of the fittest in the gym

We learned about serenity in music class

Some thirty-five years has passed

And I can still recall the elations of high school

I can still that aloneness that sometimes came with is as well

I can still summon up the feeling of sitting in front of a blank test paper

I can remember the necessary blandness of cafeteria food

That was the reward of being part of the herd

And that is not a negative thing,

For it helped teach me the value of my uniqueness

I was and am collectively part of the class of ’75, WCHS

It is a label I will wear proudly

On the lapel of my individuality

It is part of who I am

But it is not the sum total of all that I am

Knox, Noble, Renfro, Sweet, Tippett, and Grimes

Scott, Richardson, Jones, and Dye

Will always have their hand in my life

As they tried (sometimes in vain, it seemed) to mold me

Every teacher I have had in my life lives through me

I left Camelot much different than the day I arrived

And I took a piece of Camelot with me

Ron Simpson, Jr.

July 18, 2010