Sitting here, watching kids
File into my father's high school.
My dad lives in Ohio now, and I have adopted
His old town of Providence, Rhode Island.
My high school in Connecticut seems a long way off -
I just went to my twenty year reunion.
And here I sit, with my first cup of coffee,
On a cement slab across from Classical High School.
The kids are dressed in muted pinks and jeans, and move
With a spry gait as they approach the day.
Above the door as they enter the school,
It is written, "Helping to better the lives of
Others is the greatest of all achievements."
The students look and listen to one another,
Forming duos and trios, pausing, moving in.
I take a sip of coffee and add up the generations
And lack the feeling of nostalgia I think I might have.
Instead I just wonder how to learn and keep learning
Without losing faith.