Alone and disconnected
When celebrations arose
We slow motion executed
Dances with no purpose

Dance prom date Affliction
With a fantom partner
Wasted times meaning less depiction
Faux smile picture photographer

Painfully aware our last year
Was a politcal mockery
When colors were mixed with no care
Spun in a wasteland of empty pastry

Amid the less than perfect times
We all yearned for what was rent
When days and meanings were like lost rhymes
Earth Quake glory spent

Victims were we
When the waring blender mix
Was spurned as the red sea
Parted equal sections wisked

All I wanted was a prom date that mattered
A good time to remember
An event that was not battered
A partner that was tender

It took almost 4 score years to find
Someone that felt as lost as I
Who wished to be found at the Inn
Amid our insecurity disguise

Rewind a moment and pretend
That a lost time could be saved
Wish for a pleasant begin
And replace the empty space

09/05/2008

Author's Note: The year was 1970. I was a senior in high school. Goldsboro High School whose school mascot was the "Earthquakes" was integrated. At the time the school literally doubled in size. The freshman and sophomores were in the old junior high, and the juniors and seniors were in the high school. Our school mascot changed to the cougars, which was not common to either group black or white. There was no violence to speak of but both groups lost their sense of place and identity. At point our school became nothing more than a building to both groups.

Posted on 09/05/2008
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