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Dedicated to RHS Class of '95

If all of you could see me here
You'd realize that every time
You told me "no," it made me want
To persevere.
You took upon yourselves to take
My mind, and force it through your mold.
I take it back - my mind, my self,
And tears I ceded.
It doesn't bother me to cut
Away, to head downstream.  I know
That I can't go upriver now,
But I don't care.
As long as I can paddle on
As far and fast as takes me from
The waters you polluted, then
I'll find my stream.

--Barbara E. Prater, 1998