20th high school reunion

Reunion blues

We all got older of course but it’s only 20 years that went by in the bat of an eye
We still have teenage looks in our eyes and lust in our hearts
All the spouses take a step outside for smokes and commiserate on the patio where it is quieter
We all scrabble about glancing like we did in the old hallways- did I know you? Did I like you? Did I kiss you?
Some are older than others- some are jolly and robust and some are dead and beat and hate their jobs
We are all in the middle of it all, the trudge toward the end
We are no longer becoming we have become
and some have kids that were us going into senior year going into the rest of their lives
If my 37 year old brain had been in my 17 year old body I would have made love more I would have enjoyed those books they made us read I would have spoke up and got the most of school, the last time anyone cared whether or not you were going to make it out there
In the mean old world
We gathered together, familiar faces in older flesh like wax figures malformed
Old hurts are mostly forgotten
New laughter around the ridiculous fate time will instill against our will
There is always still time to become whatever, it doesn’t mean a thing except these souls
Used to vibrate together in a
common place time endeavor
So we shimmied again, almost, for a bit
Before loud music drove us apart, played by young young young hired dj’s who couldn’t know
We don’t need to party like crazed monkeys anymore
We need to talk to one another a bit more gently than we ever could have when we were babies back then
We need to say I remember this or that, a thing you said that stuck with me, the way you looked at 15, 16 ,17- the crush I had, the woes we survived, the just dumb existence we used to truck along together
Ghostly souls touched again, end-capped the last 20 years ever so slightly
Unsatisfyingly satisfying, back home to the future again, until the next time a milestone rolls over our feet and reminds us it’s all dust and it’s allright