I was a school bus queen

Best that you’ve ever seen

And no one was bored

When I got on board

Every eye turned my way

Every single day

That went by

I had lotsa’ friends

That thought I was cool

I knew everyone would play the fool

For me ‘cause you see

I was the best you could be

In the school

People look on the outside you see

They never knew what it was like to be

The best of the best

Most admired no less

That was me

A cut above the rest

Now I look in the mirror

And things have changed through the years

The School bus is rusty

My old clothes are dusty

I don’t see my old friends anymore

And I wonder what’s in store

Author: Randy Stahla, copyright 2006.

My friend Carol  wonders

If it wasn’t a blunder

To marry Tom, who wanders

Behind her back.

Debbie was told

Her daughter was ill

And spends each day still

At her bedside.

Toni runs every day

No matter what comes her way

Wrinkles running after her

Life is fast like a blur

Sometimes life is like a bad dream

I just want to up and scream

I hate the woman I see in the mirror

I’m filled with rage and fear...

Nancy wonders the same as me

What do people really see

After you leave the high school bus

What remains in this life for us?

Marie’s employed by a big corporation

Stands in line for a reservation

Trying to climb the highest heights

And every day she fights for rights

Hey brown eyes

Did you see today

There might be a new wrinkle

On its way

 I’m losing this battle against the age machine

Someday I won’t look anything

Like the school bus queen.

School bus queen

Standing between two red lights

On the back of the bus

What a sight

Bus stopped running long ago

Rusted with age don’t I know

Could anyone care for a bus this old

Could anyone care for a woman

When she’s old

Could anyone remember me as a teen -

The best, the greatest, the school bus queen?

I remember back in school almost every day

Passing notes and laughing at what others would say

How could time have taken it all away

This is a high price to pay

For growing up...

Why do you see me

So very differently

Why do I fear

The way that I appear

To another

To me it’s so clear

That I’m the same

If I gain a few pounds

Or add a few lines

When I’m at the store

And I stand in line

People are blind

Because unwritten rules of society

Dictate that they politely avoid me

And look the other way

So as not to see

My tattered outer self

That covers the real me

Hidden by imperfection

That brings their rejection

Of the same person

They used to see as beautiful

But is now irrelevant

In a world of fake plastic reality

This is such a hard burden to carry

Sometimes I hate to tarry

At the checkout stand

Or anywhere that I’ve planned

To attend

Because I hate to defend

My right to coexist with others

Who meet the criteria

Of a society bent on putting people

Into a mold

And throw them away

When they grow old

We live in the past

With ideals that don’t last

And the wind carries away

The self-respect we had

When we weren’t objects

Of polite avoidance…

Even to your old age I will be the same, and even to your graying years I will bear you! I have done it, and I will carry you; and I will bear you and I will deliver you.”

Isaiah 46:4