Graduation - for Annie

When you graduate

There is a cadence

A restrictive rhythm...

Walk.

Take.

Shake.

Smile.

Tassel.

Walk.

Sit.

Wait.

Hug.

Eat.

Done.

Do not go quietly...

Walk quickly and jump the first few steps

As if you had just been called to play a game show...

Destined to win.

Take your diploma as if it were already yours,

As if this person had found a talisman,

And knowing that no one else was powerful enough to possess it,

Was only returning it to its obvious owner.

Shake the official's hand

And feel your power travel from your head

Down your arm,

Swirl around your elbow,

On the way to your hand

As it jumps to them,

Coursing through nerve and vessel,

Until it strikes their heart.

And for reasons they can hardly understand,

They exclaim

"Damn!"

Under their breath.

Smile, that smile, the smile that says that you know something.

Something that they all wish that they knew...

a secret that they have yet to learn...

Or long ago forgotten.

Reach up and grab the tassel...

Like the tail of a racehorse;

Stopping the steed,

Evicting the old rider,

And ease the colored strings that guide 

Your future to the opposite side

To a steeper, faster, more daring course.

Walk back to your chair

Leading your own parade

Knowing that the band and dancers and clowns and queens

Will come.

Sit down in the same chair you started from...

Though now,

It seems fluffier,

But smaller,

Somehow too small

To hold all that you have become...

All that you will be.

Wait for me

Hug me

Eat with me

Be done with me

You are a new thing

Like a squishy bug that

For reasons that are ridiculous

Has tolerated the opaque cocoon of high school

And now, after a brief moment in the sun,

Has to fly away.

Leave

You have to...

But do not go quietly.