high school
we played Dungeons & Dragons
and we had girlfriends
(I can’t explain it either)
while the popular kids
were getting drunk and
(if the rumors were true)
snorting coke in their
mansions on West Lake Road
we were hanging out
in a parsonage listening to Marillion
or at Travis’s house watching
Monty Python Live At The Hollywood Bowl
or Robin Williams Live At The Met
or Big Trouble In Little China
we memorized every line of every movie
and Kevin knew the phone numbers
of all the people and places
we might ever want to call
at one time or another
everybody had a crush on everybody
some of the guys had a band
the rest of us cheered them on
now we’re scattered like dice across a table
and although we’re too young
for one of us to be dead
that doesn’t make it any less true
or any less painful
between us we have enough kids
to field a very nerdy baseball team
but they’ll never play together
different families live in our houses
most of them, anyway
that’s what you’d expect
in this age of no anchors
maybe it’s for the best
17 January 2013
Auburn AL
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