Of course your homework isn't done.
It's 89 days until graduation
and the sun is shining.
Your friends are distracting you.
It's not your fault.
There are geese to chase at the park.
Your dog ate your backpack.
No joke.
And you ran out of gas on the way to school.
You'll get to work
maybe after you finish your paper airplane.
You'll look at me through
the telescope you just made out of your writer's notebook.
I can take it. Really I can.
You are not the first group of seniors
I've lived through a second semester with.
Even though your friends will show up with coffee
at the classroom door,
I will still ask you to write.
Even though you'll play Flappy Bird
behind Kesey's pages,
I will still ask you to read.
You won't even care anymore
if you have the option to attend or not.
Won't even believe it
when I ask you to get up and move across the room
to put some thoughts on a sticky note on a poster.
Exhausted by the weight
of high school ending
and whatever's next looming
(not totally in focus yet)
and the impending good byes
and the last time you'll walk up the ramps,
or play foosball in the senior lounge,
or get to school early enough to get your favorite parking spot...
The affliction is real,
the only cure graduation.
And in the mean time
I will cherish every moment.
Because you will leave
and I will still be here
when you maybe come back to visit the Castle.
But
we
will never
be here
in this place
at this time
together
again.
