day 12, poem 10

poets_challenge

100poems

return to the empty school hall.
do you hear the echoes?
locker doors clang.
students shout.
you're still the younger brother
trying to measure up.
you smoked pot in the bathroom
during the science club meeting.

the lockers seem small.
no terror lies in the principal's office.
your brother died young, a fast-burning star;
now you'll never measure up.
bathrooms are for peeing and washing your hands.