Graduation

Look to the person on your right
Look to the person on your left
One of you will never use your degrees
The time you wasted will soak into your brain
Like vinegar into ultra absorbent paper towels
Until they swell, bursting with sour-sweet stench
The regrets will trace your steps, placing shadows
Along every burnt-edged footprint that you make
Your mistakes etching a daguerreotype into the
Trampled vegetation as you try to make your own path
Burn your credentials for warmth because we are all alone