Salt

1

Had we known the color blue,
So deep so dark so bold and true,
Her focused gaze and hollow sighs
Her hidden tears and constant lies,
Had we seen through her false grin
Her long sleeve shirts and face so grim,
We may have known to save her life
To love her, calm her, and in her strife
We may have turned it all around
And kept her here not in the ground,
So when you walk by grace's grave
Leave a candle on its place
So when grace wakes on the other side
The lights will help her to arrive
She'll follow them back to where she lays
And know someone wanted her to stay

The cheesy poem was laid out neatly on my desk this morning. Grace's cousin wrote it, Hannah. Hannah and Grace weren't super close to my knowledge. Hannah was in a club for Christians (like youth group I think), and Grace was a totally junkie. It's funny how they looked alike when we were kids. Then Hannah traded in her soccer ball for a gold cross and Grace cut off her blond locks and dyed them blue. They were inseparable as kids, but you never really caught them in the same room after middle school. Grace was pretty cool I guess.

We hung out sometimes when I went through my "punk" phase. BTW, listening to nirvana and wearing beanies in July doesn't make you a punk. I was a total "poser". Anyway, Grace was a total wild card. Never knew what she'd do next. First piercing her own ears, then the hair, next thing I know she's smoking fatty's with the school janitor. Yeah, that actually happened.

We stopped talking right after she got into coke. I don't have a problem with pot or even the occasional treat of a shroom, but coke is a hard drug. 15 year old me was NOT gonna snort a line even if it was off Zac Effron's abs. Nope, not me.

I haven't talked to grace since then, and I guess I never will. Hannah seems pretty torn up about it though. She even passed around this awful poem before school started. I'm sure no one approved of her doing it, but pitied her too much to protest. It's sad how awful it is. I'm sure Grace would've appreciated the gesture.

The day really flew by. There was a moment of silence followed by the national anthem on Grace's behalf. Guidance counselors littered the halls with pamphlets in hand. Kids went home early to "grieve". Hannah spent the day in and out of counseling and joining her club for support. Grace didn't really talk to anyone at our school. Her boyfriend was a dropout, and her friends were in college. Most of the time she wasn't even at school. I'm surprised she wasn't held back last year for missing so much.

Never the less, people couldn't seem to keep the name Grace Perkins out of their mouths. I can't imagine how bad its gonna be now that she's dead. After a year or two it'll be old news. She'll be a ghost story for freshman and sophomores to worry about.