468 My Robin

For and to Todd Anderson, student in Dead Poets Society

When he was just a lad of 15, his folks would cause him dismay,
Forgetting what they'd bought for him they showed they didn't care.
He felt unloved and wondered how he'd ever not be shy
He doubted every word he wrote and simply couldn't lay his guts out there.

And then a giant came who once had been a weakling too.
His name was John Keating and felt the dismay of this boy all too keenly.
He told Todd one day to confront his deepest fears, of which there were quite a few.
And pushed him to spew out gibberish and squatted amazed as the young lad started mumbling truth plentily.

That story told of a sweaty toothed madman with a stare that pounded one's brain.
And said truth is like a blanket that can never cover us whole.
He said that from the moment we enter crying till the moment we leave dying were only going to kick and scream as we strain,
But I believe as we kick and scream, we learn to live life with every last drop of our soul!

[First Person Addressing]

Oh Todd, I lament for all the pain from your youth and it's utter lack of confidence.
It's plagued some dear loved ones and once had me manacled and shackled.
But now I'm ready to go sparring with the whole world and teach it my highest sense.
But I fear dear lad that they'll ask me to buzz of and I'll be heckled.

I care not about their derision but it pains me that they're selling themselves short.
Your Captain, my Captain taught us to indeed be a God and to let the poetry dribble from our lips.
I wonder what he'd say at the sight of me on the verge of reaching 500, of what has become my lot.
Then I realise perhaps were all meant to fulfil a divine destiny as we let sail our fleet of ships.