Vic Kondratas is a New York City boy. He writes mostly in what he calls a “one-write” style, meaning he writes when and what the muse tells him to and he doesn’t second guess her by rewriting it later. Smart man! Questioning the muse can get you in trouble. Visit his blog to see more of his work. This poem has a New York feeling threaded through the nostalgia and the uncertainty about what lies ahead.
Boys scattered
By Vic Kondratas
First day in sixth grade
seems so far away now
One of you has a four-year-old
little girl almost as big as we were
One of you is married
a boy turned a Marine
First day in sixth grade
seems so far away now
Little girl is growing up with Grandma
in the same courtyard we shot up with BB guns
Marine is now en route to Afghanistan
with a non-combative MOS
Sixth grade is a fixed point as we travel
our lives drifting through different waters
I hope one day we will sit together again
and recall just how far we’ve come from those boys
Grown men in our sixties enjoying life
reminiscing on the same sixth grade stories
Until then, travel safely my brothers
and always remember where home stays
Very nice sentiment.