My night, marish, clops through
a mirror life
some mad scientist might
have coaxed to self-replicate
into an intemperate ooze.

I’m standing there,
and then I’m not,
lost in its reflection
and aflutter with a flabbergasting abandon
at having met you
after a bushel of now grainy,
barren years.

It is me, and it’s not
or it’s both, I can’t say
who it is, who turns away
panicked by the befuddling
indifference in your voice
before it trails off
and tumbles into a cruel muddle
of swallowed gruel,
where I’m unable to skim out
the love I loved in you,
once, or spoon
one meager goodbye.

“Can miles truly separate you from friends? If you want to be with someone you love, aren’t you already there?”
A very good evening to one and all present here. Today Im  here in front of all of you as we approach the end of our schooling days.
But i believe half of my job is already done here because its not me but our scribbled stories on our school benches that will dive us into this beautiful journey of nostalgia.
Although walls cant speak but the doodles on walls of our school bathroom can surely make us reminisce those malicious scenes of crimes we have done there.

Little did we know how quick ten years would pass by just like that.We have bloomed into  flowers from tiny little saplings in this orchard of childrens Academy. And in no time, us bunch of flowers will be unveiled in front of the whole world.
I still remember in flashes, the days of our pre primary section where we would yearn for that one cup of hot chocolate milk that would be served to us at least once a week. The same craving, in the primary section transformed into love for shezwan vada pav which still continues to be our favourite. Maturity then peaked and we entered secondary section to disrupt the whole world and win the worst class award right in the beginning of sixth std.
For me Children’s Academy is not just a school- but a journey that all of us have endured for these past ten years. Living every moment as If there was no end to it because that’s how it exactly felt like ! But today im realizing how wrong I was. It ends! The journey sure does- but the bonds and the friendship is never going to end. I wish someone had warned me that more than the people, it’s those moments that I will miss the most. Now, we will never be able to dance in front of our friends classroom and make them laugh during an on going lecture while we were on our way to the washroom. Now reena miss will never nag us for using the word “abbey”. Those menacing threats by Suddha Shetty miss to apply the canteen oil on our hair if by chance we showed up with washed dry hair to  school instead can never be relived. Now nikita miss will never  ask you about your missing id card and ask u to tuck in your shirt. Whom will we have psychology sessions with if not our bhagayshree miss.Whom will we wish suprabhat guruji to now? Who will leave us discombobulated with their flabbergasting vocab if not our beloved English teachers madhavi miss and  sen gupta miss?  not even paresha miss’ chemical reactions could beat our instant change in  our demeanour from a loud noisy fish market to an attentive obedient class when rohit sir or mallya maam would be on rounds.  Its hard to believe that no matter what we do, no one will replace the void of affection of our teachers in this emancipation. Its hard to believe that how all of these annoying rules that have  been playing in the background of our life will suddenly just cease to exist. Its hard to believe that the building of children’s academy that we visited everyday will no  longer even be a part of our life. Its hard to believe that now we wont see Vipin sir laughing at his own jokes before we all start laughing… just by watching each other laugh.
The cherished and hallowed corridors of Children’s Academy will become our Alma Mater that one day will surely be revisted by us to share the pride of our collective success, one day. These golden memories and the fact mitochondria is the powerhouse of the cell will never be forgotten by us. And for that I can’t thank bhakti miss and simi miss enough!

And lastly to end my speech i wish to quote no one. I wish to end my speech just by singing the first  two lines of our school song. Lets chime in for the last and final time and sing it in our heads.
“ the bells of our school, ring out far and wide
Their chimes make our childhood so happy and bright!”

My hair was black
hers was brown
My smile was stubborn
hers is flabbergasting
My eyes were grayish smoke
her was ocean green
We shouldn't be together
but we are
She was twenty-three
and i was watching her
the thorns were bleeding my hands
but despite the pain
t'was a red and lascivious rose
she gazed as i held it tight
with a wee sneer she held my hand
it took all of me
but i gave it to her
and she smiled
i never realized that a smile could give such hope
until that day
our love is quite peculiar
enchanted, you might say
we held the world
and created reality as our own
we lived apart from all else
but, there's just something beyond our comprehension
time
time upheld us
it took cover at first
we felt so infinite
but it is clear that time is not our friend
time is just too unpredictable
too impalpable
that it surpassed us
nevertheless, not our love
our love outgrew time
it is something yet to be known
we grew
we aged
and we loved
until the end of our time

easy access to guns certainly factors into mass shootings
but an equally disturbing issue is why so many of us
feel compelled to slaughter vast quantities of strangers
i mean, it’s because we can
with all that delicious weaponry floating around
but still, it makes you wonder
i work with a guy who had a son at Virginia Tech
during the shootings there
my wife’s boss had a cousin who died
during the church massacre last year
i was coming to work five years ago
as the cops were swarming the building
on a hunt for the maniac
who’d just gunned down three people, one fatally
these incidents of random ******
have become so ubiquitous that more and more of us
know someone directly affected
that said
the way our government kowtows to the NRA
would be pathetic if not so flabbergasting
i assume the gun worshippers are against mass homicide
though i suspect they admire the firepower
but just as there’s a lot of car accidents because there’s a lot of cars
there’s a shitload of shootings because there’s a fuckload of guns
i believe that; i could be wrong
but i guess we’re lucky there’s no National Nuclear Bomb Association

She was a simple girl from Phoenix, Arizona.
Who made an obvious
Choice, after gaining a large sum
Of money. This was to fly to Australia
In hopes of trying their fine cheeses.
There she found herself flabbergasted.

The sight she was, of course, worth the flabbergasting
As there, the girls from Arizona
Met a boy, face full of cheese
Though it wasn’t obvious
He was from that very town in Australia
And offered to pay their bills summed.

Though that total sum
Left them both flabbergasted
The boy from Australia
And the girl from Arizona
Spent what was obviously
Far too much on cheese.

Not even the most fine cheeses
But, it was over three hundred dollars summed.
The price was not so obvious
From what they had consumed, leaving them flabbergasted.
So, the girl from Arizona
Snuck out of the with the boy from Australia

As it turns out, the boy from Australia
Was almost addicted to cheese
Which is something he had in common with the Arizonan.
When she told him the total sum
Of her trip, he was flabbergasted
But his amaze was obvious

It was obvious
That this Australian
Wasn’t just flabbergasted
By cheese
But the sum
Of it and the girl from Arizona

It was obvious his addiction was more than cheese
And he became saddened by the fact the flight to or from Australia was a great sum.
So, he was flabbergast when she said, “I’m not going back to Arizona.”

year year when I looked in the sky,
On March seventeenth ,then I could see,  
Many stars were do--ci -doing,
All throughout the whole galaxy.

Normally the stars above are,
Yellow, red, white, and blazing blue;
But it was on that St. Pat's night,
The green shamrocks were far from few.

It was a flabbergasting sight,
One that I will never forget;
So many stars spun like a top,
Each one beautiful, you bet!

Humankind is young when you
Consider the grand scheme of things.
It's going to be interesting
To see what changes the future brings.

Though some people still have doubts
And find their questions unresolved,
Others are in awe at how
We human beings have evolved.

In certain ways we have seen
Humanity make great strides.
But then again, progress itself
Is questionable. Who decides?

At times it's flabbergasting to see
How little progress we seem to have made.
Are we really advancing when
So many people retrograde?

We take so much for granted about
This precious globe that gave us birth.
Despite the extensive knowledge we have,
We cannot stop destroying the earth.

Our planet has limited resources,
But people behave as though they've never
Been made aware of that and act
As though everything lasts forever.

Too many people reject reason
And place their trust in falsehoods and fiction.
They choose to substitute myth for fact
And fail to see the contradiction.

It's funny…no, it's scary to see
That while we have advanced in stages,
At the same time, many people
Continue to live in the Dark Ages.

-by Bob B (11-11-19)

Words To Love: Burgeoning🐝🌲🌿🍃🍄

It is July, year twenty twenty.
Summer sky has not been great.
One often wants what one can’t get.
There has been thunder, lightening,  storm, wimd, rain -
Even hale!  Yet,
Garden and the forest burgeon:
Rhododendrons broadened,
Sprouting unfamiliarly on roadside margins;
Upward, outward, inward, downward;
Grasses verdant, vari-colored,  
All hail to the weather god!

Fruits and bees, the reckoned with, the seasonal
Thinned out, not come as usual;
Normal berries, for example  -
Disappointing!  Very!
Fewer berries.  N’eer a berry.

Yet,
One must admit
This burgeoning is overwhelming;
Branch, bough, shoot, each flabbergasting.
Burgeoning is such a warming, loving, word.
Nature’s silent, secret growing. going on unheard,
Spectacularly self-effacing.

Words to Love: Burgeoning 7.10.2020 Circling Round Nature II; Arlene Nover Corwin