The Class of Sixty Four

I remember the very first day,

Boys assembled like captives in halls

Apprehensive, awkward, but never in dread

Newly wrapped for what lay ahead

Amongst the capped corridors of academe 

The hunting grounds of the weak by the weaker

Lost in the newness of what was to come

The learning, the painful discovery

Of everything essential for conformity

For loyalty and allegiance

We tried and we wept

We tried and were kept captive for more

Daily, the mists fell away and doors lay ajar

Music was heard and light cast across 

The puzzling, the demanding and the bizarre

We created and related and absorbed the dictated

And fell foul of the modal and the conjugated

But slowly made progress in search of our star

Friendships blossomed between boys who strived

Who faced the consequences and survived

Everything thrown at them 

Unspoken loyalties and heartwarming fun

From musical evening and cross country run

We grew stronger, we burgeoned, we thrived

When all was ended and the tide took hold

Like hatchlings from a tropical beach

We swam for our lives, consoled by our friendship 

Through oceans of endeavour to reach our goal

And all the while we kept in touch

By card and call and tacit parole

Decades have passed and time hurtles on

And our numbers are scythed by the reaper

Now, each year, we return like the turtles 

Safe in the knowledge that a deeper kinship

Will be found in reunion

We resume where we ended, in comforting union