bet you're glad

==

bet
you're
glad

---

school days, school days,
good ol' rotten rule days ...
                                       ---barbsdad
---

school's boring I think
you know what I mean don't you
that's not an opinion

of mine

it's a fact proven
or not if you don't know such
as the case you have

not been paying
attention bona fide I
hated school wanted

out wanted

it to stop cease
desist enough already
oh yes uh-huh for

sure to

quit my impossible
boredom I sickened myself
and when I did

pretended it did
leave get away went to
live with my grandparents

who lived

in Tillamook County
you know where little Hebo
sits right under the

mount east of Little
Tuck so close to the sour
yellow cheese factories

so mysterious

and the grand Pacific's
grim-gray ocean and her salty
tideflats did near nothing

but romp with the farm
animals skip flat rocks across
the pasture pond's smooth

surface watch early
spring's Three Rivers' riled-up flood-
waters begin their

slow

withdrawal from gush of
lost temper to more normal
stage become clear less

muddy made it easier
to spot trout minnows first fresh
to life flash white

tummies I missed school
started to anyway you
can believe it or

not I won't blame you
either way your choice your life
some parts of it

anyhow and for sure
did not want to have to
repeat a year at

that age years seemed like
five should I opt to return
in the fall or

not

whatever I do
and did like having options
who doesn't so I

transferred to Nes-
tucca Union High on the
hill in Cloverdale

with one helluva
view across the valley claimed
my father's parents

as legal guardians
when they weren't not really signed
up for classes they

indeed

did not have Latin
available so put me
in end-of-year Spanish

which got confusing
being not much plainer than
Greek to me and the

frustrated

teacher felt sorry
for me I was so stressed out
gave me a B even

though I did not do
well cutting in like that at
last month of first year

of non-Latin so
to speak I'd been blessed with all
A's in Latin at

the other school which
made that B look awfully
pathetic then and

even now

in retrospect so
that is how I'd like to say
I ended up my

learning
seven months

of Jean Martin's
introductory
Latin at first blush

so weird and not learning
one month of Lat- --- er, Spanish
in that junior year

of high school as my
memory has its hold on it
since I'm all but out

of breath this very
instant no surprise huh I'll
stop to catch my next

burst of

wind before it gets
away from me bet you're
glad ...

==