(a poem about the transition from high school to college)

 

I’m looking at a hamburger right now.

There it is, right in front of my face

Just a round little brown thing

It looks so happy.

 

I have been thinking a lot lately about this hamburger

that is right in front of my face.

The top reason that I have been thinking about it

Is that I am about to eat it soon

So I have just been wondering what it will taste like

 

But the other reason I have been thinking about it lately

Is that this hamburger reminds me of myself

In more ways than one

 

First of all, he just looks so glad to be here

Just sitting on that skillet

Not even moving

Not even trying to be somewhere else.

He is just happy right where he is

 

I feel like that is kind of the way I am right now

I am sitting on a skillet that is my hometown

And my friends and my family

And my small brown house

And my boyfriend who is a professional lacrosse player

 

Ok I was kidding about the boyfriend

Who is a professional lacrosse player

I do not have one of those (yet)

But what I do have is all those other things

And what I am trying to say is

I am content to be here, with those things

Just like that hamburger on his skillet

 

Another way I am like that burger

Is that, soon

That meaty guy is going to get flipped off that skillet

And he is gonna get all kinds of stuff thrown at him

That he does not see coming

 

Like for example,

I am about to put pepper and salt all over him

And also maybe chuck some guacamole right at him

And then I might toss him into a salad

That he probably wasn’t expecting because he was probably expecting a bun

But he has never met me before

Who eats burgers in fresh new unique ways

Every day

 

And me,

Well soon, I am going to get flipped off my skillet

And when I am on the new plate that I get served onto

(Which is college)

All kinds of things are going to get thrown at me

Like new people and new opportunities

And new work

 

And hopefully dodgeballs

If they offer dodgeball at the college that I go to

Which, let me tell you

If they don’t

I might have picked the wrong college

 

But anyway

Just like my burger

When all these things come flyin right at me

And I start getting dropped into situations that I did not see comin

(Like the burger in the salad)

 

I just have to stay calm

And think like a burger

And ask myself,

What would a burger be doing in this situation

 

Because probably, what a burger would be doing

Would be just sitting back and remaining calm

And letting himself be hit with guacamole

And dropped into that salad

 

Because he knows that

Ultimately,

This is all making him more flavorful

 

And if there is one thing I want to be

It is a flavorful burger type of person.