Tanner Lux wrote this poem using the emails, texts, and remembered snippets of conversations of Jim Thorpe Area High School’s Class of 2021.
– A Note from the Editor
It’s time for us to pack our things.
I’m taking what memories I can.
I should have the baggage to fit it all:
- I’m taking chewy Spree candies;
- the school parking lot in fall;
- car rides with windows down;
- the football games;
- the band brigade;
- the Chinese restaurant in town;
- the theater and its warm stage;
- and the weight lifting room, with its shoddy Powerade vending machine.
I’ll take the pain as well,
As lessons in my head.
But I won’t forget the love I saw,
Even when I’m dead.
I want to take the colors:
- Mr. Miller’s face red;
- bashful blue stripes on the walls;
- and white fluorescent lights that coat the halls.
I want to take my failed tests
(Thanks a lot, Mr. E.).
I’m sorry we all can’t be like Danny…
Now I go forth into the world,
an Olympian carrying a mighty torch!
But part of me will always be
a kid from Jim Thorpe.
All the best!
-Tanner