……when you realized
that your alphabets
stopped at el
this morning
did you remember
the letters that got you here?
grades that never
graduated
and
long letters of longing
never mailed-
but written.
always.
letters wrapped in
ivies
under leagues
that were almost
always
out of reach
letters knocked
out of typewriters
by
11 student ghosts
who had stared
down that
train before you
did you remember
the a for admission
and the
a for anticipation
and the
a for aspiration
and the
a for the a team
and the
a for the a face.
always.
did you?
was that you
in my ear laughing
today
when the
vice provost forthis
and the
associate dean forthat
showed us the new paint
on their blackfaces
and was it you
dying hysterically
in my head
when they said
they
knew all about
stopping the dead
erase those letters
their committee advised
and replace with numbers –
11 ghosts
will statistically fade
eventually
little did
they
realize that
you wrote
in visibly ink
letters rising up later
to haunt
every one of their
shiny
concretes and steals