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tonight we gather
to mark a
commencement day

four decades on
from a late June
afternoon

exchanging
embraces and
bon voyage wishes

departing a grand
chandeliered Rivoli
embarcadero

bound
to glorious
destinations

our bold sails
welling with
youthful
exuberance
in pursuit of
dreams
and intrepid
endeavors

our life
journeys
are blessed
with rich
abundance,
the grace of
challenge and
the gift of days

this evening
as we reconnect
to share the joys
and wisdom gleaned
from well lived lives
we will also celebrate
in multicolored splendor
the lives of classmates
who have commenced
journeys to other
destinations

though their
earthly sojourn
is complete
passed friends
remain alive
in our memory

surely the spirits
of the beloved
will walk this
room tonight

forever young
their quiet presence
will gently touch
tender hearts

they’ll appear
as they once looked
on their finest day

and as we relive
the bits of our lives
we shared with
one another

we may feel
the grasp of a
warm hand
as we once did
during that
snowy evening
west end walk

we’ll dance with them again
around Tamblyn Field bonfires
gyrating in a shared
ecstatic ebullience

we’ll applaud most likely
to succeed lives
most beautiful smiles
and crack up
to the hilarity of
class clown jokes

we’ll taste the kiss
of an after dark
Lincoln Park
rendezvous

groove to the
rock steady
beat of a
bad company tune  

we’ll submerge again
in a Yellow Submarine
to embark on an epic
Greenwich Village
journey

we’ll roll down
the shore on old
Thunder Road
windows open
hair blowin
radio blastin

we’ll taste the sweet sip
of Cherry Cokes
and Root Beer floats
at Roadrunners

chasing lost love salty tears
spilled over ***** upperclass home boys
and the soft blush sentiment of a
first French kiss

wouldn't it be nice
to swoon to the
fantasy and
winsome yearnings
of favorite
summer songs

filling our head’s
with mind
blowing collages
starring
team mates
drama club
second takes
heady chess club
checkmates

we’ll marvel at the disruption of
premillennial breakthrough science projects
created by pocket protected slide ruling
entrepreneurial math wizards

we'll recall droll gossip
by drab hall lockers
dim gym showers
awkward dances
Yippie people power

patriotic assemblies
cool sharp dressers
right on brother
Que Pasa lil sista

rock and roll album covers
Simon and Garfunkel poetics
Go Go Boots kickin
FM radio psychedelics

Midnight Confessions
emphatically blared
from the cafeteria jukebox
Civil Rights, Earth Day
and righteous
anti war activism

tribes of hoods, Ra’s,
jocks, artistes and tie dye hippies
everything is groovy
lets get a sandwich at Ernie’s

first carnal explorations
Moody Blue Tuesday trysts
man could she speak German
boy do I dig her dress

we did hard time together
at split session detention centers
ate chocolate chip cookies
cracked up to Mr. Thomas’s
Ides of March tragedy

took first tokes and
sips of Boones Farm
we partied hard
and did no harm

admired academic brainiacs
and the civic commitment
of student govie reps
shut down the gubmint
was never a threat 

basketball rumbles
Bulldog football
**** Ludwig soccer teams
nimble cheerleaders

leggy majorettes
kick *** marching band fanfares
compelling masquer presentments
Park Avenue wayfarers

they were
crew mates
on The Soul Boat
rode shotgun
to Midnight Rambler
Doobie Concerts

cruised hard in
the Root Hog
Rat Raced Louie
in tiny white Pintos

we booked
many a mile
with our lost
friends

on the road to
this evening

authoring
volumes of
fabled odysseys
and fantastic
recollections

their stories
are our stories
telling our stories
keeps them alive

some may say
gone too soon
but the measure of
a well lived life
is not counted
in days, nor
accomplishments

but how one has loved
and how much one was loved

quietly there
always with us
forever to be
a wholesome
part of us

as the brothers
from Cooley High
would say

lets tip a sip
for the brothers
and sisters who
ain’t here….

God bless
Godspeed
enjoy the evening
vaya con dios mis amigos

Music Selection:
Pat Metheny
Mas Alla


RHS 74
Class Reunion
Elks Club
Rutherford
11/29/14
Lone Wolf Dec 2014
You, upperclass, American feminist
Will you please shut up about a sandwich?
And comic book characters, supermodels
Shut up about your first world problems
And take a look somewhere,
Where the idea of feminism Is actually needed
Have you ever heard of an arranged marriage?
It's common practice in other places,
Right after puberty, as long as the ******* are there
11, 12, they don't really care
See the life of a Nepali girl, lower-class,
Lack of freedom
Learn about the meaning
Of the word
kamlari
Young Nepali slave girls
Beaten and bruised,
Not allowed to be ill
Or
Jogini,
Devadasis

Which are both from india
Dedicated to a goddess at as young as as five
To bring the family good fortune
The tribes girl, forever *****
But with nightly visitors in her bed
They're hoping for some of her luck
To rub off on them
Sumangali
dalit girls
Sold by their family
For next to nothing,
It's called "bonded labor"
And is supposed to pay off debts
But the trap is set
The girl is caught
And if the "bonded labor man"
Feels she isn't of enough use
Maybe she's been beaten or is a little too ill
He sells her off to another man
Supposedly to pay her hospital bill
So yes, feminism is needed
But not here you little heathen
Shut up about your so called freedoms
And help the ones so desperately need it
So, ya. Feminism in America kinda ****** me off. It has gone way past gender equality and has transgressed into female superiority and that's not right either. There's few issues I will actually get worked up about and this one of them.
If you feel the need to be feminist that's fine. Be feminist. But don't ***** about sandwiches and comic book character outfits. Protest something that is truly in need of being stopped. Help someone that needs it.  
Some sites that are very interesting reading material to look into for true feminists:
http://www.dfn.org.uk

http://mama.imow.org/yourvoices/kamlari-shop-girl

http://www.womenundersiegeproject.org/blog/entry/silent-slaves-stories-of-human-trafficking-in-india

And oddly enough the one that has so far shown up in my research as a prominent activist is a man. Named Kailash Satyarthi.
Child labor is of course both female and male children. However they are sold in different markets. Males are mostly sold to factories, while females are sold on a more private basis, to men for personal use. Or sometimes a family and the wife "doesn't know" what's happening. Or maybe she does and just doesn't have the authority to say anything. Whatever the situation is, it is wrong. Children shouldn't be sold by their family, and no girl should ever be forced into something.
jad Feb 2013
We go about each day, telling ourselves the words our mothers fed us as children, “You can be anything you want, you can reach heights unseen and untouched by any other being.” But we speak them in monotone, we see them without processing.  I played along like every other and chanted them with a smile but with no idea of the actual meaning and interpretation. I did not make those words mine, they were merely an idea; an unexplained, unrealized idea. But my eyes have opened and light has shown upon it and the truth to it. I can do anything and there is not necessity for schooling or to go to an elite college. I can do the things I love and with passion because I want to! The flaming passion that burns in my eyes spreads upon those who hear my words and my excitement.  I am seeing the world’s situation in large and each act and each rule and law as changeable. Revolutions and riots have brought change and the rules we live by and each thing we see as so common can be altered and flipped upon it’s buttox if only one sees the possibility, wants it, and speaks the benefits. We are not a perfect society. We are not better than the past. We are not lesser than the future. We are what we have and we have to live and deal with it, but that does not mean to be content with out society nor does it mean to over appreciate it. We can change and we will change. No one is content, and we must realize we cannot ignore the change or ignore the history being made. Do not sit in your homes huddled away and watch the news as if you are not part of it. Step out your door and watch as we create history and we decide what is the best that we can do to be able to do what we love to do as humans. We are so often restricted by society and it’s beliefs on what is acceptable and what is available. As a child we grow up and we see our options as firemen, policemen, doctors, or teachers and then as we grow up we keep our brains in this mindset that those are our options and then we get into highschool and start realizing we know of nothing, we don’t know our options, we don’t know what we want to do with ourselves. Then we say we have time, we say we can make that decision later and then we cruise through our schooling not focussing on anything and then keeping in our head the 5 options of life and occupations that were given to us when we were children. We need to not just tell our children that they can do anything and then give them a few options, they deserve to be shown throughout their whole lives what it means to do the things you love and are passionate about and not having to be pushed into a category of work or life that they “kind of like”  and think that’s what passion is because they haven’t experienced enough to realize what their possibilities are. Life is so much more than what we have built it to be as society. Life is not going to school till youre 30 and then doing work and having a family and going on a few vacations and then growing old with a person you hardly care to genuinely ask how they’re doing. We belong to this earth and I swear to God, I’m going to embrace this earth and frolic upon it’s soil until the day I die because I want to experience it all and I do not want to live in the confines of what society has confined itself to. The things you find social acceptable are your own barriers and the limits you are making for yourself, so do not bash another for going against the grain but applaud them and follow behind them and create your own path as they did. I’m done doing what makes me most financially stable or what the upperclass would respect me most for. It’s not like I did before but gosh ****, I’m not going to busy myself with other peoples fear of change and the unknown.
brea  Mar 2013
Happy birthday II
brea Mar 2013
You're good to go.
Smile and talk like the perfect host
Of a happy crowd, inebriated
Vapid, inane, upperclass professionals
Play nice, your mind is a cage
Chainsaws and stretch racks dance in your head
Fantasies of impending doom,
But alas~ this cannot be
Fear and shame, fear and shame
You are a changeling.
Secretly substituted for a real girl at birth
Alone in a crowded room
Fey don't eat
Fey don't sleep
The perpetual curse of wakefulness
Only desiring to sleep forever
Walking dead, one thing brings you joy
Free fall, kindle the fire
Endorphins and fun chemicals
"The difference between medicine and poison is in the dose"
In this case, your poison
Is a cold cement bridge
Early morning snowfall
And tempting waters blow below.
Eternity passes
And then you become one with the ******* titanic.
Float back to the fairies, my dear.
Lone Wolf Oct 2014
Our country is amazing, isn't it?
Everyone I know says so, so it must be so!
The massive crowds with flag pants
Decked out in red white and blue
A country for the masses!
A country for the massive
Beloved lady liberty!
Would be nice if she could marry lady justice
And all our wonderful freedoms!
The freedom to say what you want!
As long as it doesn't threaten others
And, oh no, don't tell them that!
You have to be nice...
The freedom of religion!
Were doing pretty good on that
There's only seven states that ban atheists from government office
The right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness!
Holy ****, have we forgotten slavery?
Have we forgotten that this country was built on suffering?
We have that lovely looking blanket of paper
That makes us sound so noble
But go deep enough in the south
And just take a moment to listen
Racism is still strong, we're still not open minded
We're a country made for the deceiving
And filled with the deceived  
And let's take a moment to zoom in
At first you'll see our glory
All these beautiful cities
Buildings made into art
All our silver lining
But scratch the surface just a little
Were in debt up to our necks
And not just the country, individuals too
Paying off those student loans
Relying on social security
And being let down repeatedly
Even with that fancy four year degree
Can't find a job in today's economy
Dig deeper and you'll find the slums
This is our thickest layer
Drug addicts, petty thefts, prostitutes
Dealers, suppliers, a whole network
Trace it back and you'll find some connections
To our higher up, upperclass, upstanding citizens
"It's called the American dream because you have to be asleep to believe it" -George carlin
Arcassin B  Aug 2014
"Kyra"
Arcassin B Aug 2014
By Arcassin Burnham





pretty girl,
with so much regret,
it makes you feel such great pain,
cheering her up would be the best way,
when shes haunted by the upperclass,
i just want to be the one,
to make sure ,
that her life,
will be fluttered by happiness,
and joy,
to be comfortable with her body,
and her health,
we've been in the same boat,
too many times,
and i dont have a reason not to love her,
i couldnt be more sure,
in my life,
i use to be the same way,
when i thought noone loved me,
but i was strong on my own,
so i distant that memory,
and now im in love once again,
with a girl im trying to put good spirits in,
and when she goes away,
hard not to cry again,
when she tells that noone cares,
i smile and say i do,
and i do,
but not just care,
its more like love,
they wouldnt dare,
mess me up,
from what i want,
and what i want is her,
no matter how far we are,
i know shes there,
half across the earth,
if i had a wish,
it would be next to her.
http://arcassin.blogspot.com/2014/08/kyra.html
Liz And Lilacs Oct 2014
I listen to the silence of the night that isn't truly quiet.
I listen to sobs of the lost children.
I listen to the prayers of the disgraced.
I listen to the whispered gossip of the upperclass.
I listen to the gasps of pain from the damaged.
I listen to the rejoiced cries of the fortunate.
I listen to the cracks of souls shattering.
I listen to the lewd moans of lovers embracing.
I listen to the forsaken sighs of the companionless.
I listen for you, but cannot seem to hear.
Prompt: Write ten lines, each starting with "I listen ..."
Filomena  Feb 2022
The Place
Filomena Feb 2022
There's an addict in the attic,
and a trans girl in the tub;
There's an immigrant, Hispanic,
and a criminal in love.

There's a shaman burning incense,
and a gamer taking shots;
There's our upperclass equivalent,
and a noisy group of thots.

And the lady takes our livelihood
and somehow still stays poor,
so please make sure the lights are out,
and always lock the door.
Sat. Feb. 26, 2022
One word has been censored.
Shawn Adams May 2016
There will be more than one book
And perhaps five hundred tests
I fear the loanshark baby
And Ive felt the poisonous debt
6 thousand days Ive slaved
Shed too many tears
All for a wage obeyed
Poverty our modern fear
I feed the offspring well
With table scraps of upperclass
They can't even tell
Their made with broken dreams
Stories i cannot sell
Worth every moment
From time to time unspoken kind
Woven fabric of ethical mind
Unbinds
And here we find
The absence of tragic
Lies
That magic of creation
That imagination
That curious
Furious fire
That burns
That
Life in the works
"Daddy, why are you going back to school?"
Malignant gangrenous political cancer
     corrupts, festers, and poisons United States,
     thus opposition cannot wait,
especially since Gospel in accordance

     with feeble minded Donald Trump
     implemented wrought ugly trait,
particularly obliteration, sans progressive
     human rights legislation

     more or less pronounced positive
     in every L ionized Nittany or cotton bowl state
and ratiocination inherent within
     mine Democrat oriented mind doth rate

this forty fifth president (defect)
     with sawdust packing
     his noodle oven egotistical pate
trophy wife (spouse number three),

     a Slovenia mate
donning "I don't care anymore"
     t-shirt rousing media firestorm of late
essentially silently corroborating,

     fostering, and illuminating hate
mutely bolstering the Trump anthem,
     viz make America great
again, which pathless,

     pithless, and pointless aim
     roars like an earsplitting runaway freight
     train oblivious of wailing soul asylum,
     that no era meets said criteria

     backtracking time machine before
     rightful indigenous occupants of this land
     got decimated as one after another
     exploiter did inundate

(comprising a multitude
     of indigenous variety of village people
indignantly subjected to Genocide,
     when first "discoverer"

     of new land didst promulgate
activation wrought deliberate sealed fate
vis a vis capitulation, demolition,
     and extirpation, cuz

     a scathing rebuke aye attest,
     those murderers didst equate
worthlessness of
     so called "Indians" on 1492 date,

and still remnants of storied tribes,
     now attempt to create
historical documentation operate
ting with limited resources to adjudicate.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
Food methinks doth buzzfeed drumbeat agog
at pyrotechnics July 4th, 2018 shared as blog
posts, a falsehood prevails which dog
gone “FAKE” brewed watered down grog
posits that the majority of Colonialists stay hog

tied to strict task masters, and mainly the scant
upperclass experienced autonomy,
     no matter the under class didst futilely rant
and rave with the occasional
     uprisings over time did grant
minimal appeasement to stifle violent kant!

— The End —