Graduation Day – A Rite of Passage into Adulthood, or Childhood’s Funeral?

A vignette about the overwhelming noises, people, and feelings experienced on the day of high school graduation.

The room was too vast, too bright, too crowded. The cacophony of giggling, gabbing, gregarious voices had crawled, clawed, and crammed their way into my ears before I had even made my way halfway across the parking lot. I navigated through the mass of bodies with my eyes cast downward, only slightly deterred by the swaths of slick black material clinging to my legs. They congregated in packs, their faces smiling pink and brown blurs. They towered over me, these oblivious figures, like grim reapers tasseled and adorned with the golden nooses of their social contracts.

Once I found my seat, I constantly checked my phone for the time. The minutes dragged by. The voices rolled over me in waves, mixing in with the tacky music played over fuzzy speakers. Oddball words nicked my ears and I closed my eyes to imagine what the seemingly disembodied voices were talking about.

Sentimental sleepovers, wistful weekends, remembered forgotten jokes, malapropisms and mistaken misdemeanors from a million years ago. 28 remember-that-time's, 87 oh-my-god's, 13 I-haven't-seen-you-in-forever's, 45 promises to keep in touch.

I opened my eyes to the sound of my name. I looked up to see familiar faces marred by masks of cosmetic creams. Words are exchanged, and I'm swept up into the maelstrom of mammal memories.

© 2015 Briana Noël Manzano

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emipoemi

A exemplary piece that confirms the notion that it takes a skilled poet to really bring a piece of prose to life. This is brilliant! It really had it both ways (a happy and sad occasion; a rite of passage and a funeral), and "grim reapers tasselled and adorned".....beyond description, that line! Absolutely fantastic! Well done!