I was thirty, freshman making up time
\nmy first semester in college and
\nI took a film class
\nwhat seemed like easy credits<\/p>\n
Rarely had I worked so hard
\nin a classroom<\/p>\n
Week one we watched
\n\u2018The Graduate\u2019
\npenultimate coming-of-age tale few of
\nmy classmates had even
\nheard of<\/p>\n
We focused on the ending of the film
\non again, off again
\nlovers Ben and Elaine
\nbrazenly escape from her wedding
\nhopping a city bus
\nlaughingly falling into the rear seat
\nwhile out the back window
\nenraged family gives chase
\nBen and Elaine, oblivious
\nsmile warily<\/p>\n
Film ends, professor simply asks us
\nfifty dorky freshmen
\n\u201cHappy ending? Yes or no.\u201d
\nOnly three hands
\nshoot up on the \u2018no\u2019 option one of them
\nshaky at best<\/p>\n
Professor Yahnke had us watch
\nthe ending again \u2013 three, four times
\neach time facilitating
\nlate teen incomprehension to
\nwhy this was not a happy ending
\ndiscussing the
\nframing of the scene
\nbody language
\nfacial expressions \u2013
\nBen, Elaine, her parents
\nprofessor\u2019s message
\nthis was no ending in any real sense
\nbut simply the start of
\nsome new chapter <\/p>\n
Class ended with dumfounded
\neighteen-year-olds
\nmumbling weak defenses of
\nmyopic beliefs
\nBen was the hero, he rescued Elaine or
\nElaine realized her mistake or
\nmy personal, perennially skewed favorite
\n\u2018true love won in the end.\u2019<\/p>\n
It took me another sixteen years to
\ncomplete my college degree
\nit has been over thirty
\nsince I sat through that film class
\nand two weeks of passionate arguing about
\nhappy endings, sad endings
\nendings are only new beginnings<\/p>\n
To this day
\nI see anything in life that ends as
\nsimply a phase
\nlife as perpetual Etch-a-Sketch
\ndraw it out, shake and erase
\ndraw something new<\/p>\n
And whenever I hear anything by
\nSimon and Garfunkel
\nI offer a stern, out loud rebuke to my
\ncar\u2019s radio
\nto hell with Mrs. Robinson
\nHere\u2019s to you, Professor Yahnke<\/p>\n
\u2013 Mark L. Lucker<\/p>\n
\u00a9 2021<\/p>\n
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I was thirty, freshman making up time my first semester in college and I took a film class what seemed like easy credits Rarely had I worked so hard in a classroom Week one we watched \u2018The Graduate\u2019 penultimate coming-of-age tale few of my classmates…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":694,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,13,441],"tags":[4155,4140],"class_list":["post-88061","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem","category-miscellaneous","category-poetry-prompt-responses","tag-2021hour1","tag-2021prompt1"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88061","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/694"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88061"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88061\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":103744,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88061\/revisions\/103744"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}