At My 50th Class Reunion by Wayne F. Burke

no one mentions that

I was the Class President.

No one at the table has anything

to say; no one seems to have heard

anything I said--

the girl that hated me

in High School, hates me

still; the guy that wanted to punch me

out, still wants to, but

still lacks the guts; the

cheer-leading sluts ignore

me--as they had back when;

the class vice-President runs the

show, as he had wanted to 

in High School

(but lacked the savvy).

The ones who never left

town, are the many;

those of us who did

leave, the few.

Everyone I hoped to see

is elsewhere or

dead.

It is deja vu

all over again.

Wayne F. Burke's poetry has been widely published in print and online (including in THE DAILY DOPE FIEND). He is author of eight collections of poetry--most recently BLACK SUMMER, Spartan Press, 2021. He lives in Vermont (USA).