TO GRADUATE

TO GRADUATE

It is fast becoming that sweet time of year

Or bittersweet as the case may be,

When seniors don their caps and gowns 

And their education culminates

After years of solemn matriculation.

And I need to graduate as well

From a trembling, bumbling mass of flesh,

Subservient and worthless,

Longing for things that are out of reach

And bloom into a man at last,

Capable of saying kiss my ass

To people who stare when I walk with a cane,

Who laugh at the horns on my hapless head.

I can shrug my shoulders at the pain

And bend like a willow instead.

It will be a grand commencement,

When I take life on its own hard terms

And learn to focus on the dreams so sweet

That wait upon another shore, that gently beckon me,

To follow and to claim my grand reward.

I will forge bridges, not burn them behind me.

Bridges to new jobs, bridges to new friends,

Bridges to a new day where the delights never end.

A time where potential stretches keen,

Like a page from a self-help magazine.

And though others may scoff, I will walk with purpose.

And sit quietly, spreading my arms to take in the universe.

I will die to sorrow, rise to joy, this earth will be my precious toy,  

Filled with promise and knowing full well it is never too late,

To build the life I've always dreamed, to arise and graduate.

-Bruce Potts

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ALL RIGHTS RESERVED