Pay Attention Class, Vital Information.

    "Pay attention class. You'll need this in life."
I'll need this? Since when? I don't see when I will ever need to be able to calculate the mass of a tree, or the length of the shadow it casts. But if you say so... I'm walking through the park and come across a statue; it appears to be about 1 ft. tall but just to be sure I'll pull out my measuring tape. Yep, 1 ft. exactly, perfect, now I can measure the shadow. Oh look, another 1 ft.! Awesome, this will be easy now. I pull out my scientific calculator that I carry everywhere with me and do the calculations, the angle appears to be 45 degrees. Good thing I learned that in school, it was definitely essential to my walk through the park. Oh Mr.Killick, good thing you taught me how to measure the cycle of a tidal wave and how long during two revolutions it is above 3 meters that is definitely essential to my day on the beach. As I walk through the grocery store I come across the produce section. This orange is nice and round, I think to myself, but just to be sure I'll pull out my protractor and measure the radius of the orange then divide it by 2 pi to find the circumference, then I'll see for sure if this little guy is really perfect, because that is definitely essential to my trip to the grocery store. All these situations make me see that math from grade 7 on is completely necessary for me to succeed in life. Recently on a trip to Manitoba I was driving and saw a train, I measured its speed and velocity then the length of the track it was on, from that information I was able to calculate that we would reach Manitoba approximately 2 hours before the train coming from the West and 3 hours before the train I just heard about on the radio heading from the East, because that is definitely essential to my drive to Manitoba. Thank god I was taught all of these necessary techniques in order to survive in life. Yes class, indeed you will need to know every single tiny piece of miscellaneous information you are fed throughout your highschool career. As you can see from my experiences, it is all important, all essential, all necessary, to survive the many years to follow after highschool.        

No Destination

A Saturday
      liquid with sunshine,
he meanders

he does not hurry, for he has no destination

yellow brick
    pockmarked
      chipped
no houses rendered unique
 by
   necessity
     and indifference
a suburban labyrinth

seedy-looking grocery stores
     children
       dart
         back and forth
      like startled fish

losing and finding himself endlessly

this act of faith
     locked in domestic grief

the last voluntary movement of his life
  he
   reaches
    his
     hand
      toward

the gun
  
   click
     bang
the last voluntary movement of his life

  his annoyance blossomed into self-hate

beyond the light,
 everything
  is
   obscured
    by
     darkness