have the paintings
on the cafeteria walls
of martin luther king
and jack sparrow
changed slightly in color
or is it that my cones
have changed shape?
we left our name tags
on the library wall.
i hope that small children
will see them there
and keep us
in their minds,
wondering who we were
as they enter our world
of bad news
about the climate
and restless nights
listening to radiohead.
in darkness
broken only by
phone flashlights,
filled with noise
from a piano
and bongos
and those metal things
where you swing it
like a hammer
and it plays a specific note,
this old auditorium
feels like it exists
outside of time,
forever caught halfway
between the old days
of playing super mario
on the 3ds
and the near future
of driving away
into the sunset,
never to return.
do you remember
how the upper grades
had class on the second floor,
and how when we were
in the lower grades
stuck on the first floor,
that upper place,
being forbidden to us,
seemed so mysterious
and almost magical?
i still get that feeling
sometimes, when i'm in
the city and i look up
at the tops of the buildings
with stores on the ground floor.
i hope you do too.