Mr. Keylock’s Spectacular Graduation Poem
GO
Go.
Go now.
Go now into summer, into the glaring sun that will beat on your backs as you walk the promenades of life,
Go.
Go now.
Go now into the backseats of cars with all the tops down and crank your new songs so that the world will feel the pulse of your beats on all the sidewalks of life that children chalk,
that you once chalked as you learned to create your 123’s, your ABC’s, and now your Twitter feeds.
Go now.
You must go.
Go now into your swimsuits that adorn the sides of pools and the banks of lakes you’ll now swim, your slick bodies cooling as you slide through water holding your breath to ascend into a sun-soaked air that wraps your bodies like parents arms as beads of water
rush your bodies like baptism,
you must go,
Go now.
Go now into the pulse of morning dripping with all its light upon your friends and loved ones who may still be sleeping in this town of squirrels and flagpoles,
this town of school buses and tolling church bells,
farms and rivers,
of trickling streams and wooded trails,
this town of colonial houses and flower beds bursting with the first hints of summer,
this first summer that is free of school for you,
that is free of backpacks and satchels leaded with books,
that is free of cafeteria lines and fire drills,
free of homerooms and homework and the weight of the last 18 years of your life that can be summed to this moment,
this God-given instant where you sit alert and charged in all your gowns and caps
that in seconds you will launch to the sky on this night of first kisses
oh you must go,
You have to go now.
Go now into your new life that beckons like a two dollar Edmond movie
Go now into your new life that screams like CJ’s town hall Ska
Go now into your new life that will ascend and fall like hacky sacks in our lobby
Go now into your new life that will be as loved as Louis Belanger’s weather
As welcome as Zach Dlouhy’s Bower’s burger
As upfront and scary as all the public displays of affection that have blessed our school halls
making me and all these beautiful teachers divert our eyes to the walls of our school loaded with all their murals and posters and declarations of independent thought and diversity and love of all of you…you beautiful 430 graduates sitting poised and ready to step one foot in front of the other, careful to catch yourself in the fall
you must go…
Go now.
Gotta go now into your life that is as vital as Alex Krohn’s laugh
As sporadic as Neyati’s rapid-fire sneeze
Go now into your life that is as glorious as a Ladle brownie
That is as sexy as Thursday
As sultry as all the B-wing stairwell makeouts
As fulfilling as 4am breakfasts at The Colony
As wild as the Newtown tornado that kept you from school for two days your freshmen year
Back when you were, you know, freshmen
Where now you speed into your lives again as perhaps, you know…freshmen,
And go into your lives as pure and graceful and unfettered as those of you who have skated Patrick Shirley’s ice rink during the winters your faces glowing and the leaves tinkling like tin in the breeze as you spun on your skates like you are spinning now between this world and that
new world you embark where all the secret things await
You have to go…
Oh, you have to go now…because the world invites you,
because the world is beckoning you like one of Erin Manion’s songs,
it’s lighting its torch for you like Rams Pasture at Christmas,
like a Mr. Carly room-fire,
this new world asks you to spread passion and love and hope the way Shane Wurtz spread “Counterstrike” through the school
like bugs spread in the portables,
and yes, like the marching band spread Swine Flu
oh baby you must go into this world arms stretched and eyes wide go now…go tonight
You simply have to go because for 18 years you have waited to slip between life’s sheets and tonight the world smells of clean laundry and summers at Dickinson pool and Creamery Cones and flagpoles and the benches where you first kissed one another’s lips your faces smelling of mint
You have to go now
Now
Because you have been waiting for this rebirth of splendor
Waiting for freedom and hope to fall like rain
Waiting to reclaim this earth as yours
Waiting for the storms of life to begin
Waiting for Ms. R to remember her name
Waiting to set sail for happiness
Have waited for the green mornings to come again
Have waited for your futures to catch up with you at last and embrace the very moment
that brings you right here…
here…where in minutes you will bear this mantle of liberty and face forward those closed doors that will open as you burst onto the streets into sunlight that will blind you in your sunglasses where you will hug one another so tight as if to say remember me
god remember me…
remember us…
remember our lives together…
remember the bodies we have slept against
remember the scars on our right hands
remember how we stayed up so late we had to drink our coffee before we went to sleep
remember our basement rooms
remember how we banged the walls of Reed school and the clocks fell from their walls
how we made cardboard boats and raced them across the pool
Remember Mrs. Wolfson’s card tricks
Remember Mrs. Waterbury’s Mel Gibson poster dripping with all its promise
Remember Mr. Weiss’s polished head as he leapt from desk to desk
Mrs. Brand’s hours of dedication to those who struggle
Mr. Pess’s Fresh Prince rap
Mrs. Hannah’s singing
O’Bloy’s Black House
Latin moments
Bananna suits
Fish trees
Luke Fiore’s vow of silence
Wending Lu’s vow of sleep
Jenn Callery’s parachute pants
Julie DeAngelis’s track-skinned knees
And remember Danielle Jacobson who should have been with us tonight
Oh remember,
Oh, Mr. Keylock you gotta remember us
Remember us on Thursdays when you smell mama Modz’s brownies
Remember us on Thursdays when we get Sexy
And remember us on Thursdays because Thursdays when we graduated
Oh mum, dad, teachers remember us as we hug one another outside ‘cause we have to go now
In minutes we gotta go
Got to go where our jobs beckon
where college awaits
where trade school abounds
where the military calls
where gap years entice
we have to go to where the dreamers go
where the city lights gleam
where the bandstands are singing their songs for us
songs so glorious we can drift into them like memories,
like some familiar memory,
like some familiar body,
a parents body
that stayed up with us one night,
one summer, one year, when we were so young,
and the world was ours,
just waiting for us in all its beauty,
in all its purity and loveliness like a Miles Alderidge high five,
just waiting,
smiling,
suspended in sky,
beckoning you to connect,
this world
that’s simply there for the take.
Lee Keylock
Entries (RSS)