Yearbook of 1933

You sit at your desk at school now, but eighty years ago there was somebody else doing the same thing. Worrying about the big test, crushing on the person sitting three seats away, etc.

Ancestors, ancestors,

Do hear my cries.

Tell me, how was it like before

You all went and died.

Did you sit in these classrooms,

Did you run down these halls?

Did you weep behind the stairwell

Or in bathroom stalls?

I try so hard to see you

In your pleated skirts,

Your large, horn-rimmed glasses,

Your button-down shirts.

How much alike are we;

Do we share traits at all?

Do we laugh aloud the same way

When someone else falls?

Ancestors, ancestors,

If you were now here,

Would you smile at the world before

You re-disappeared?

Reviews

[MSC]

Rarely does someone go to the same school as their ancestors but it must be such a good experience to imagine where they walked, where they sat, how they learned, and what kind of classes they had. You do a good job keeping 8 and under syllables in each line. The lines: "Tell me, how was it like before" and : "Did you weep behind the stairwell" had 8 syllables and the rest had under that.

[no sun]

What a great time piece. Nicely written!

[Poet Sayings]

this is mind tugging work, to vanish into existence, conceptual and
another place and time, great work here.

[Jay Levon]

interesting and well written, good job :)

[WhiteWillow]

When I read this, my thoughts turn to the power of books. Without pictures, without words, would anyone even think about those who came before us, those we never even met? You never met the people in those old yearbooks, yet they inspired you to create, they made you think, they invited you to a different time. Their time. Great write.

[Flo_writer]

I like this because it's so original and you did your research which shows dedication towards your work. Rhyme are my favorite form of poetry so that too helped to lure me in. I think this one is a very crafty piece and I enjoyed your work. Well done.

[Mrs. Laura Aranda]

i teach and often walk down the very hallways that i graduated from and where my mother and all her sisters graduated from......love this poem. this is the first one i have read by you and it captivated me from start to finish. the title made it a little too predictable but it was a good read all the same

[Poet's World]

They would just go back to dead life, but some may feel awe and like this fashionable life more, good poem, i enjoyed reading it

[Samuel Dickens]

It's comforting to see a young person like yourself think along these lines, because so many think their circumstances are different and that no one else has gone through what they have. Of course things are the same! Fashions change, but not much else.

[Kenneth S.]

Nice work, tight rhyme, tight rhythm. And the message, timeless.