V. Graduation Address (Miss Peach, The College Years)
I like to be at the end and look back
at the beginning and see all
the stupidity there.
I think we are young.
The posters all say so,
and though no one ever officially
joined our clubs, we designed many logos.
The beautiful, dumb girl you loved
was everyone at our lecture,
and what a strange boy we all were in the corner
with our walking stick, talking too much
about the board games back home.
Many of you were next to me at the talk where I became
hyper-aware of the creeping in my heart.
As you know, I became obsessed
with the on and off inside my chest.
Failure seems to be one half of the deal, which is why
I have occasionally climbed on top of some of you
and then left the room. But there is another way
to look at it: like you, I am a house
for a wet animal that is sneaking up
on something it is terrified by. What is that something?
The wet animal doesn’t know.
The wet animal doesn’t even have eyes.
There’s no way that wet animal isn’t brave.