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FIRST PLACE
1969
By Mike Arenas
Cucamonga, California
(Note: This poem contains adult themes
that may be
offensive to some readers.)
Stella Bond was our smooth
faced target
Her exquisite beauty ignited many fantasies
her reality was sheer tempting innocence
Her twin brother was drafted
No. 28 in the military lottery
he lost his left leg in Vietnam
he hangs streamers and small toys
from his electric wheelchair
Senior trip
we snuck a bottle of port
past the guards at the amusement park
You threw up
you gave in
for me the evening was monumental
for you a hazy unromantic memory
I bragged to my friends
you tried to forget
I'll always remember that night
you forgot my name within a year
I had a job at the car wash
Dora fried chicken at KFC's
She wore false smiles for her customers
I would go to buy lunch from her
she always gave me extra mashed potatoes
It wasn't mashed potatoes
I really wanted from her
Mr. Kramer was Dutch
He was everyone's favorite
American government teacher
Filled with knowledge
As well as sarcasm
He kicked me out of class
3 weeks before graduation
I was forced to take my final exams
in the library
he did not want me near him or his class
I got kicked out
because I was scratching my leg
and Lisa Ruiz
yelled out that I was masturbating
Larry knew where Birdman hid his car keys
Somewhere under the wheel well
we took the Bird's car for a cruise
around the campus.Birdman panicked
till he saw his car with us in it
the situation pissed him off,
he made us walk to Frosty's
he showed up later and apologized
Larry never did apologize
Our football team
took last place again
Lisa screwed the entire first team,
she became homecoming queen
Jeanette Moore got pregnant
we all knew she wasn't
really out-of-state
on a long visit with an aunt
that was just the usual
story parents told to cover up family shame.
Lisa never had a kid
Gary had a stutter, played football on B squad
coach sent him in with a play
B squad got called for delay of game
60 percent of our freshman class
never made it to their senior year
Our graduates:
40 percent went to junior college
10 percent went to universities
5 percent went to the military
35 percent had jobs, worked at their dad's dairy
or
lived off their families money
of the 5 percent in the military
none were killed in military action
10 percent vanished into the population
they were never heard from again in our lifetimes
Members of our class fell into one of the following
categories:
Neo-revolutionaries
pseudo intellectuals
mojados
sprays
surfers
cholos
Mexicans
Portagees'
Bascos'
jocks
white paddy's
spoiled Dutch kids
Borders created to gratify identity and form pseudo
segration
1969
Rustie's beer parties
Tina's great body
Mr. Tennyson's lectures
misguided love
sad ambition
young girls who looked clean, smelled clean,
talked
clean and were clean
curious stares
innocent flirtations
impossible dreams
the cute girl in the second seat in math, I married
her
we divorced within a year
So much for the dreams of youth. Yes all the
love songs lied.
In 1969 we lived in the animation of our present
not
realizing the reality of our future.
But then none of us really cared too think about it.
Copyright (c) 2003 for
the author, all rights reserved. |
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