Machine

Things these days are changing

And I’m not keeping up

I’m not holding down the fort,

Not like I used to.

In twenty days I’m the top dog

I’m gonna be the one

That’s trusted with the reins

And I don’t know that I’m ready for em just yet.

I’m happy where I am

Not quite the top but still far from the bottom

Because if I’m to move up

That means the ruler now has got to move away.

I aint ready for them to just yet.

You see I love many of the gears

That make up the ruler’s machine.

There’s not a single cog

That I haven’t become familiar with.

The thing about machines these days

Is that they’ve got many individual parts

But every single one of them is needed

To keep even but one mechanism running smoothly.

The same is true of the class of 2016.

I’m part of the class of 2017

And the machine that is my school

Is in need of me.

It sees the class of 2016

As an outdated item

But I do not.

Sometimes the old-fashioned way

Is the best way.

These seniors shouldn’t treat each other like interlopers

Because they aren’t foreign bodies

To this rusty old machine.

It replaces the old with the new every year

And every year that replacement damages me.

I, as an individual gear,

Cannot function as well as I could in the beginning

Because I have grown incredibly attached

And with each year the mass loss of fellow widgets,

Those whose teeth I turned round and round with mine,

Has worn on me.

This machine aint well oiled one no more

And I definitely aint helping it along no more neither.

No, I dont want the prime seating in this old system

That just means my last year here will loom over me

And my closest friends will have scattered

To fill other, older and more intricate machines.

I won’t be seeing most of them no more.

I won’t be hearing the whir of their friendly voices neither.

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t want that.

I’m gonna miss them greatly

And there ain’t never going to be another time like this’n.

I wont be seeing them in no class get-together twenty years from now

I aint a cog in their section of the machine

I aint never gonna be.

I’m becoming rusted by my longing

And I’ve grown slow because of my nostalgia

I’ve lost plenty of those good old gears in past years

And I just aint ready to lose no more just yet.

Among the class of 2016

Are gears that I love.

And one gear that I’m still in love with.

Those cogs done gonna be leaving me here

Amongst the class of 2017

Without a single one of their teeth to help move me forward.

Reviews

[Ana Papaya]

Interesting thoughts and very wise too. It's an ever changing and shifting world. Look forward and look backward, because you need both. To know where you've been and where you're going.

[Nisreen]

The universe is moving too fast ................