Stars - Adrien Hillis

This is an excerpt from a book of poems I've written this year; this one is about a really great person I knew when I was younger.

he was four years older than me,

so we were never very close.

still, he taught me to play guitar and he’d buy me candy from the store.

he was kind,

and thoughtful,

and he cared about people.

when he was in fifth grade, he wanted to go to eighth.

when he was in eighth grade, he wanted to go to college.

he always shot for the moon.

he’d be graduating now.

he never got to ring the bell

and go to highschool.

learn to drive,

move out,

fall in love,

get married.

he would have been a good dad.

he would have cared.

it’s been five years,

and we’re learning to think about him and smile because,

“hey, he was a good kid.”

he made the people around him happy.

he still does.

he may have missed the moon,

but he landed among the stars.