Five years in and I learnt all the bad words
The terms of endearment smeared with vulgarity
The hollerings of young impudent boys at ease with the barbarity
Of curses and cuss words
Take me not back to those years of
Savage putdowns and uncertain jocularity
Of ravaged hearts and ruinous hilarity
The cruel currency of teenage boys
Instead, let me meditate on the noise and din
Of classrooms and the boys and girls within
The drama of pining hearts, the original sin
Of birds and bees playing their own parts
To perfection
We laughed in artful jest and mannered scorn
To mask our youthful hurts and hearts forlorn.
"How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." – Annie Dillard