Remember doomsdayers proclaiming, “The world’s ending in 2012, beware!”
Turns out our apocalypse was set for 2020--they’d just made a small rounding error,
In hindsight, we should have all known the end times were near,
I don’t think Trillium or Silas has had a major injury in nearly a year,
For other omens you don’t have to look to the stars or the weather,
Carter had one outfit back in September that wasn’t perfectly put together.
One day Anouk & Te Amo didn’t sit together in class,
And Henry toyed with buying an iPhone before giving it a pass,
Alex had been talking about Discord all year long,
Keenan stopped wearing headphones--I should have known something was wrong,
Torri & Dylan got injured--disasters always happen in threes!
And ominously, Kincaid stopped torturing Lily O. with fake parking fees,
Mya was waving her red flags furiously--we should all have read in,
Lou transformed into Rudy Gulianni-a sure sign of armageddon.
Then the quarentimes were upon us and things got strange,
At least, Caitlyn and Blaine shared a Zoom box-somethings don’t change.
But Aaron’s background always had some animal eating his head.
And Roland was always in class, but somehow... also in bed?
Orion W. couldn’t play soccer without purelling his cleats,
And Wes hasn’t gotten to hug anyone beyond his family in weeks,
Lily M. ran our Zoom prom like a boss CEO,
Did we all get to dance? Well besides Bryan... no.
Queen Karen went all in and got pink eyebrow transplants,
Sadly, Logan was the only guy to come to Prom wearing pants,
Lexi was royalty too, but still has a crown to procure,
Nicolas stayed in the US to attend-good decision? I’m not sure...
In our quarantined lives there are silver linings to be found,
Like Orion P.’s quick-changes between each Knowledge Bowl round,
You can turn up Wyatt’s volume so he’d rightfully stand out from the crowd,
And we can all crank up our voices to be Basil-level loud,
Rachel can still trumpet if she cleans it with bleach,
Theo spent all of his extra time down on the beach,
Asa always is smiling even when the world is a frown,
Jasmine’s mile-a-minute brain could finally s-l-o-w down,
To get to graduation early, Megan went to great lengths,
Cece got to do school via writing which played to her strengths,
Briana still always speaks from her heart--she’s never robotic,
Veda and Pink’s animal care looks even better in light of Joe Exotic.
Aidan can shoot hoops, if he just keeps washing his hands,
Ruthann no longer has to play in six school bands.
Ben’s background themes are all entertaining political memes,
Even virtually, Riley & Jack keep playing the jester it seems.
Some things never change, though we’re all locked in our rooms,
Zach and Joe still find a way to be tardy to Zoom,
Anika and Skylar are artists even when stuck inside,
Beau’s work ethic is too noticeable to hide.
Matt won a scholarship for being a wood-working star,
Competition for patience? You know who’s winning-Pilar.
We all know Izzy never does anything half-hearted,
Gabe hasn’t stopped skateboarding since this whole pandemic-thing started.
Even in Zoom, Nae Nae’s joy couldn’t be hidden,
And you can’t keep Reece at home if there’s a bike to be ridden.
Kel still gets excited about everything even on a small screen,
Solomon always writes in red ink so you’ll know just what he means.
Kenzie and Jacob are golfing, but socially-distanced it’s true,
And Nathan wants me to mention winter conditioning is coming soon to a pandemic near you.
As we locked down, Senior Projects had to get finished on their own terms,
Luckily, Braxton’s animated short couldn’t spread any germs.
Ian’s health club internship got shut down with the new rules,
Spencer is quarantining with all his favorite web-design tools.
Jaden got to Thailand before Covid hit the ground,
Donna lent a helping hand to folks turning their lives around,
Jane and Sierra could create superheros to save us from the virus,
Cooper’s rap could blow up if he just adds a little Billy Ray Cyrus.
Covid can’t dampen these seniors’ futures they have so many skills,
DJ David will be spinning disks down at KPTZ to pay all his bills,
Beth always stands up against any injustice that she sees,
Vanessa already can read at a college level in more languages than me,
Sam’s French is so good he could shelter-in-place in Quebec,
Kesem’s that friend you can always call on at the last sec,
Katherine’s writing will make it smooth sailing through college,
Madison stays silent until she suddenly drops the most knowledge,
Ellie’ll find a volleyball game, and Frances will be playing her violin,
Luca will be flying 747s by the time this Corona-thing ends.
Cosmo soon will be ready to open his own tattoo shop,
If you're talking about Seamus you know the grind never stops.
So here we are at the drive-in, a classic teenage movie trope,
John Travolta might show up and sing I hope/not hope,
I can’t wait to watch the class of 2020 when their delayed release gets to be seen,
It’ll be right after Ms. Hageman’s superhero movie hits the big screen.
This time next year, I’m wishing for a little more hope and a little more fun,
Maybe we can stop talking about toilet paper so much with the class of 2021.
by Benjamin Dow