Justin Boida:
CLASS OF 1998
Roseville High SchoolClass of 1998
Roseville, MI
Justin's Story
Billy Bale (out) or jus (jus)
(don't ask, I don't know)
lived until he died.
Not remarkably, not unremarkably
which I suppose leaves us with
common flashes of brilliance
but it wasn't until I was approached
by Billy's mother that I got the idea to write
about him
she said Billy had wanted me to go to my
ten year high school reunion and tell that joke I always tell
about the man in the supermarket who
out of nowhere
meets a woman who says¿
(well it's not a very good joke and Billy's mother
has jus experienced a significant loss so
I won't tell it)
anyway I met Billy's mother in a supermarket
and she told me to go to my high school reunion
and we didn't comment on the irony
except to say I'd seen Billy
at my last high school reunion
5 year reunion I said
too soon she said...
with no qualms about what she really meant
and Billy's mother meets this guy in a supermarket
and says that there's this joke
that he has to tell about
this guy and a horse
and it will resonate with others because
Billy liked horses
even though we both knew
he had thought about horses as much
as he didn't think about horses
which leaves us with:
a guy walks into a supermarket
and meets a woman who
hates jokes except this one joke ...Expand for more
about
a guy and a horse who breaks a leg too soon
being that the horse
had an outside chance at immortality
a fact that, be it true or untrue
is now irrefutable
a horse crippled at it's peak
and more so
two people walk into a supermarket
each with his/her own idea of the value of jokes
especially humor in the face of grief
and the woman says to the man
tell the joke that Billy liked
and make these people
ten years older now
make them laugh with the joke you tell
but I tell her that the joke doesn't have a horse in it
I tell her (and god forgive me) the joke involves:
a man sees a beautiful blond woman
in a supermarket and the woman tells the man
that she has one of his kids
and the man searches his brain
sure that he would remember such
a beautiful woman and finally the man says
hey I remember now
you're the stripper I banged out on the pool table
while your sister
spanked me with a bamboo shoot
and the woman says
no I'm your english teacher
and these two people trapped in the purgatory
of a supermarket
a place where all people go in times of death
during mundane afternoons
laugh at the punch line
the punch line that doesn't involve horses
for some reason
a lack of horses
is comforting
this day
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