Buddy Reports

With the first of three violent punches
I laid him out in the fresh long green grass.
The laughing crowd left in laughing bunches.
I pulled the crying boy up off his ass.

In the first two weeks of our ninth grade year
We were exposed to wilderness and "Buddy
Reports." Buddy Reports were to be feared.
For two weeks it rained cold and was muddy.

We suffered at our chores and in our tents.
One boy trapped a raccoon and took it to where
He drowned it in the lake. The lake's suspense
Broke as its hand reached up and gripped the air.

Buddy Reports shaped our society.
We told on each other so easily.