Not Your Normal Senior Year Poem by Kay Young

Waking up for the first day

Of my senior year

Nerves on the edge of a mountainous precipice

Looking over feeling ready to fly.

Glance into the mirror

Checking that the swag is in place

To put the charm in the air

That drops the ladies pantelones

To the ground level.

Excitement does nothing to even explicate the emotions

That I hold on the onset of this last beginning

But this is not your normal senior year.

Day before the one that came before today

I found out that my mother has fallen into the crosshairs of that

dreaded Fiend, The big C.

Dealing is not my fortre

A time that's supposed to find me placing the cherry on top of

My metaphorical ice cream Sunday

Has instead left me with a huge hole running straight through

The center of my being, my core,

My corazone so to speak.

The woman who I believed to be invincible

Is now revealed as merely mortal.

But she would not let me weep.

No

Instead, She brought me from my knees,

And forbid me to stop my elaborate dream

Of one day ruling the world.

And as she fights, every day, I will also.

Fight

To overcome this beast known as a senior year.

Fight

To become king of the world

Figh

To be a son worthy of standing beside my mother, my my friend, my superhero.