Graduation Poems - The Academy of American Poets is the largest membership-based nonprofit organization fostering an appreciation for contem
Bad things are going to happen.
Your tomatoes will grow a fungus
and your cat will get run over.
Someone will leave the bag with the ice cream
melting in the car and throw
your blue cashmere sweater in the drier.
with a girl your daughterâs age, her breasts spilling
out of her blouse. Or your wife
will remember sheâs a lesbian
and leave you for the woman next door. The other catâ
the one you never really likedâwill contract a disease
that requires you to pry open its feverish mouth
every four hours. Your parents will die.
No matter how many vitamins you take,
how much Pilates, youâll lose your keys,
your hair and your memory. If your daughter
into every live socket she passes,
youâll come home to find your son has emptied
the refrigerator, dragged it to the curb,
and called the used appliance store for a pick upâdrug money.
Thereâs a Buddhist story of a woman chased by a tiger.
When she comes to a cliff, she sees a sturdy vine
and climbs half way down. But thereâs also a tiger below.
And two miceâone white, one blackâscurry out
and begin to gnaw at the vine. At this point
she notices a wild strawberry growing from a crevice.
She looks up, down, at the mice.
Then she eats the strawberry.
So hereâs the view, the breeze, the pulse
in your throat. Your wallet will be stolen, youâll get fat,
slip on the bathroom tiles of a foreign hotel
and crack your hip. Youâll be lonely.
Oh taste how sweet and tart
the red juice is, how the tiny seeds
crunch between your teeth.
blakekathryn
janainaart
tangentwithtanner
germansingergirl
kaledo-art
