I Remember freshman hall, lockers slamming, saddle shoes running, clock ticking, four minute bell ringing.
I Remember upside down and backwards padlocks, cleats clicking on shiny floors, frustration at boyish pranks.
I Remember hall monitors sitting straight up in square tan desks checking hall passes.
I Remember English class, the Ides of March, Julius Caesar, “Et Tu, Brute” and our teacher, Miss Barton, reading aloud to us.
I Remember pony tails, petticoats, angora sweaters and class rings on neck chains.
I Remember GAA initiation, walking through peeled grapes and cooked spaghetti blindfolded, trying not to scream.
I Remember every stair and hallway, where they led, and the shortcuts only upper classmen knew about.
I Remember graduation day, on the football field, my classmates and I shedding bittersweet tears as we marched to “Pomp and Circumstance”.
I Remember signing annuals in the rotunda on the last day of school, not realizing those words would remain longer than the building we were standing in.
I Remember Pearce Campus before its bricks were sold and it became a parking lot.
Free Verse/Repetition Poem
I wrote this poem as an imitation of Joe Brainerd’s poem “I Remember” as spoken of in “Adventures in Anaphora” by Rebecca Hazelton.
I wrote it in memory of my old high school campus which was just torn down last summer and turned into a paved parking lot. I attended classes there from 1959-1962. The building held many memories before I attended and many afterwards. Its destruction touched the hearts of many people.
Leonas Lines--Poetry Plus 