[Newspoetry] The H Word

[Joe Futrelle]

Re: http://fyi.cnn.com/2001/fyi/teachers.ednews/02/23/school.hugs.ap/index.html

The H Word

Sometime
in our lives' mornings,
those ballistic arcs of hope,
we traded our mothers' embraces
for those of
backpack straps.

Our apogees demand that we
renounce even this attachment
to exchange for, say,
a ring hugging our finger,
a money clip hugging
our assets,
solid to vapor,
dust to interest.

We are bright, happy
on the outside but we were
offered these terms before
we knew what was happening
and our unmet needs gnaw us
into pieces,

the stuff of which
addicts are made.

At school we hug
each other, desparate to
retard our dispersal, like
a firework trying to hold itself absurdly together.

In this way we victimize each other.
You have seen what this looks like:
the vapid smile, the
rumpled shirt.

You know an epidemic of
affection threatens to populate our school
with these blissed-out shells,
too entranced with each other
to learn.

Detention will remind them that
their puppy love is trumped by
your pit-bull love.  Dog teach dog.

In current events I see
EU leaders greet each other
with kisses, cardinals kneel
and kiss the pope's hand, George
W. Bush hugging senators and
governors.

I take from this the lesson that
power comes with great priviledge.

A blow job from an intern is not
so grave an offense
as lying about it.

We can see though
that it started with that hug:
Monica blushing
and clinging too long
to her President as he pressed
through crowds of supporters.

I'm learning.

I'm a smart kid, admired by my
schoolmates.  They love me
and will risk hugging me
to show it.

When the tears of shame
come at our realization that we 
hug because we need to,
because we have fallen into addiction
and disgrace,
hold us in your arms and tell us
everything is going to be O.K.

--
Joe Futrelle
editor-within-chief
Newspoetry dot com