Who’s sorry now
I was rolled into the classroom on a gurney for all my classmates to see that – even in death – I looked singularly dignified, still strikingly handsome.
My best friend, Jasper, was sobbing uncontrollably, and my sweetheart, Nanna, had to be restrained or else she’d never let go of my 12-year-old corpse. Peter, the bully, stood frozen, his face full of regret. I wanted to say, ‘Who’s sorry now, jerk!’ – but I couldn’t cause I was definitely dead, and he, and his small gang of sadistic thugs, knew they’d be living with the shame for the rest of their miserable lives.
As my gurney was positioned in front of the teacher’s desk, the headmaster started playing Seasons in the Sun over the PA system, and all the teachers – including Mrs. Mortensen, the nasty old math teacher – stood there weeping in anger and despair, ‘What’s the point of going on, now that our favorite pupil is gone!’ they cried. ‘He was the only one out of all these losers who was going to amount to anything.’
And my casual sweethearts – Lona, Marie, Lillian, and Tina – all of whom took advantage of me in the girls’ locker room – kissing me naked in the showers, begging me to do other things to them – they, too, were hysterically crying, for they of course realized that me fathering their children was now out of the question.
Then all the boys on the soccer team – and the stickball players, too – lowered their heads in prayer, and pleaded with God to resurrect me cause they knew damn well that without their captain – their top goal scorer, their ace hitter and catcher – they didn’t stand a chance at the county championships.
Everyone in the room – my classmates and all the teachers, Jasper and the sweethearts, even Peter and his thugs – soon were on their knees with hands raised to the heavens, laying bare their broken hearts, yelping: ‘Goodbye to you, my trusted friend…’
No way I was gonna tell them that I’d be back in school tomorrow.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Steen W. Rasmussen was a singer/songwriter and guitarist in Denmark – his native land. He now resides in New York City and is a member of Woodside Writers, a literary forum that meets weekly. His poetry and prose have appeared in Scars Publication, Down and Dirty Magazine, Ekphrastic Review, Dear Booze, Horror Sleaze Trash, Dadakuku, Lothlorien Poetry Journal, and Sparks of Calliope.
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