All the High School Sweethearts

poem

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All the high school sweethearts
from this year and last year

and every other year are gathered
in the gym. You remember her.

You remember him. The band
plays every couple's honor song

but nobody takes the floor
except the King and Queen

of Memory. Maybe a few 
sweethearts are still in love

with each other but everybody
else is just sipping nostalgia 

from a plastic cup. Funny 
how beautiful our scars

become. After the band plays
one last ballad, a few stragglers

linger at the door, wanting
more, please, a little more,

but everybody else will say
goodbye to their favorite ghost

and travel home, fast or slow,
to whom they treasure most.