Commencement lies

[joel]

Commencement lies—I hate and curse the lies
spectacular and celebrated, spread
like rich cholesterol on meaningless,
nutritionless and bleached and broken bread
and – yes – perhaps the taste is sweet,
but so is saccharine—so sweet, so fake.
If you have nothing nice to say, don’t lie;
I’d rather hush than whorish alibi.
Now shit is something real; and I can make
its measurement, its graduation, meet
an honest end—a hopeful end—instead
of false commencements. Shit’s an end. I bless
shit and its foul and rotten rank, its dead
and dankness wherein weedy flowers rise.

[e_dog]

Girls and boys, distinguished guests,
now that you've successfully completed our training program
of social conditioning and thought control,
or at least we are tired of keeping you slow ones around,
we're sending you off to the 'real world' where
you will make yourself into nice robots of the capitalist machine.
Some of you however are destined for even greater things
-- the army, say, where you can spread democracy (wink, wink)
to the Muslim world; or for the real achievers, you may be off to higher education where they will fill your heads with more shit than you can shovel. As for the drug addicts amongst you, you will probably wind up in jail or prison or a hospital, unless you fit into one the aforementioned categories.
So kids, good luck. Off you go, don't forget where you came from
even if Walmart has to rebuild the area to suit its future needs.
God bless you and above all God bless America!

[mnaz]

Just another ceremony.

Life has "commenced" a-plenty, numerous times since then (usually after temporary regressions)...