BILLY MITCHELL

 Today in my mind but yesterday was a 
 Long time ago,

 I think of you, a place and a school, I 
 Was a little boy.

 It was nineteen sixty seven, Kindergarten 
 And you,

 The first day of school is recalled in my mind, 
 A boy I saw cry.

 His name Was Cotero, I think of those clowns on a
 Wall,

 Are they still there? I wonder, swing sets and 
 Young friends.

 A boy named Grover, Duck, Duck, goose, Graham 
 Crackers and milk,

 Nap time, I remember the cabinets with cartoonish 
 Pictures.

 Reading time was the best, Fold out books, three 
 Dimensional stories,

 Hansel and Gretel, all the best, I was there until 
 Ninety seventy.

 Hard to remember the teachers names, Mrs. Scott 
 Back in second grade,

 I think it was Mr. Kelly, Principal with dark hair 
 And glasses.

 John Jacob Jingleheimer Schmidt was a song in the 
 Cafeteria,

 After school and on the weekends you could play games,


 Carroms, maze, and more, Billy Mitchell, when once 
 I was a child.

 Friends, Jeff, James, Jimmy, and Alan, wherever  
 They are, I remember,

 There was a bell back then known as the freeze bell, 
 Stand very still.

 We all have our childhood, our memories, a town to 
 call home, then we roam,

 Billy Mitchell, I find myself wandering back to you, 
 Memories of a school.
                                Keith Garrett