The Reunion
The sixty-year reunion
of the class of '55
was quite a celebration
for the ones who had survived...
First came prissy Pomeroy-
then Milford, Meeks, and Moody
who like old crows, perched and cawed
at busty old Miss Trudy
While Trudy curled her lip
and bustled off in mock-huff
(secretly flattered, but still
retaining her outer bluff)
Then entered Velma Lester
half-blind, she squinted around
as she flattened someone's hat
on a chair she somehow found
Skinny Gilby Gibson was
quite his wise-cracking old self
elbowing and slapping knees
like an overgrown old elf
While crippled Pauline Petty
doddered all around the room
sour-faced satisfaction
spreading suffering and gloom
To those who barely made it
by canes, on walkers, wheelchairs
straggling in, she greeted them
with glad-to-be-gloomy stares
“Glad you made it here”, she said
“...you know Victor Nichols died?”
with ghoulish glee relating
details of his death-bedside
“And Dexter Davis had just
got over influenza-
when he broke his hip and died
(tripped over a credenza)!”
“Sibyl? Oh, she passed away-
at least thirty years, or more
I would've told you... but you
never brought her up before.”
One by one, she ticked them off
the old classmates who'd passed on
until at last, she was stumped
by the fate of dear Gaston
French foreign exchange student
who won all the girls with ease
she darkly surmised he'd died
“disreputable, diseased”
While off in other corners
odd classmates huddled around
and tried to recall old times
amid furrowed brows and frowns
Marcy relived past glories
those sock hops held in the gym...
Norma grew melancholy
missed chances and heartaches grim
Sam sat alone and marveled
at changes in the school's lawn
the missing landmark buildings
what remained, and what was gone
The most surprising changes
were not found in those places
rather in the characters
of those familiar faces
Day by day, each decision
by minuscule increments
personalities and lives
chiseled by sundry events
While some reacted badly
when tragedy struck their house
and made it their life-mission
to grieve, gripe, groan and grouse...
Still others lived through horrors
that none would've ever guessed
and learned how to laugh it off
and enjoy their life with zest!
But Milford, Meeks, and Moody
managed to remain the same
never maturing with age
unabashed and unashamed
Still the arrogant bullies
with blustering, bragging lies
who'd cheat, steal and bottom-deal
for whatever money buys...
And 'though the goal was to grow
and you might think this is sad-
out of one hundred-forty
three utter failures ain't bad!
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