Newsletter sign up

Be the first to know when new American Life in Poetry columns are live.

Column 623

Cry To Me

Intro by Ted Kooser
02.26.2017

Here’s a poem by John Stanizzi, who lives in Con­necti­cut, in which we get a good look inside mid­dle-school cul­ture in the six­ties. But is it real­ly any dif­fer­ent today? This poet­’s most recent book is Hal­lelu­jah Time! (Big Table Pub­lish­ing, 2015). 

Cry To Me

We walked through some heartache in '62.
Gary liked Teresa but Teresa
asked Elizabeth to tell Peter that
she really wanted to go out with him
but Peter had been making out with Jane
in the theater, celebrating their
one month anniversary, so that was
out, and even though Jane broke up with Pete,
Peter kept asking Gail to talk with Jane
which Gail wouldn't do because she'd told
Brenda that she thought that Peter was cute
but Brenda wasn't listening to a word,
wrapped up in lonely teardrops shed for Greg.
The waters of 8th grade were never still.

Share this column

Disclaimer

We do not accept unsolicited submissions

We do not accept unsolicited submissions. American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation (www.poetryfoundation.org), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright ©2016 by John Stanizzi, “Cry To Me,” (2016). Poem reprinted by permission of John Stanizzi. Introduction copyright © 2024 by The Poetry Foundation.