St Agnes High School - Palm Yearbook (Rochester, NY)

Page 63 text:

i am not here but i can feel the sweat beading around my neck like slimy tank tracks furrowing the rice paddies i am hearing the ugly cries of men tormented with fear splashed with shrapnel choked with vapors and i can see death streaming from the blazing tongues of Pentecost -but this is no festival- this is the paradox of the living parade- all the pagentry in the world can be seen in this devastated land fireworks on the fourth of iuly are only second best to the blasts we see in this sky . . . i am not here but i can smell the rancid odors of rotted bodies some of friends, enemies-only people- stranger to me now- but i can still taste their last bittersweet breath now mingled with the stagnant air. i am here but i can not feel i can not see icon not hear- today they ripped open my skull and robbed a piece of my life and left only nightmares for me to watch. Kathy Keck '71 'the things you've stately aseyou. g E Q Time' lncomprihenslble-ettlledg ln 4 your face and arms. r - now I do not knowiyou. - eg Silently I must watch ' '-luis my tuml searching for ages past: It , for something we shared tn quriyouth. Jean Shady '71 59 he T, .3

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Childhood Wide-eyed Innocence DIED For me When I Met you- Who Turned My dreams Into the Rotting Existence That Is Reality. Thank you. Now When I think My Thoughts Are Polluted Nasty Frightening Unreal And A Part of you That Is not Really Me. Thanks For Letting My mind Rot Corrode Into A Sewer-Like Cavity Dunk Dark And full of Empty cracks That Haven't yet Found That Sun That at one Time I Called My Own. Kathy Keck '71 My land is dying the establishment bleeds I'm straight and I'm stoned and I'm killing my brother. I don't want no hate I don't want no love I want to be free to fly where I please and find the true peace offered to me. An alien to earth I'm alone with my dreams. Jacquelyn Connelly '71 58

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On a small hill in a field is where my mind travels to be with you for the last time before I let you leave me. It's not easy to give up memories nor is it easy to rely on faith That's why I'm saying good-bye before you have the chance to remain in my dreams on th Kathy Keck '71 Together we were gathering the earth's treasures all we wanted, for nobody measures and together we laughed on the good brown earth examining our rewards, figuring their worth. We were going, unburdened and truly without care our hearts laid light on such days so fair but where had it gone this iust and merry where did we forego mirth to be but weary? Age is sad, when finally realized the cost awareness cruel, when innocence lost. Paula Gager '71 Leaping fiercely, intensely, growing, burning-light- FLAME ethereal fire massive, burdensome log crushes flame, bursting, smashing seeking to destroy but fire surroundsg blue, orange-gold flames consuming the greyness and miraculously, the mass becomes part of the flame and the flame grows again ' the log is penetrated by its intensity and spewing scarlet embers, and curling tendrils of grey smoke spreads warmth and brilliancy for the flame conquers with energy and the mass can but respond with the same . . . Michele Surat '71 60