The cieling fan runs quietly,
The hound snores at the screen door.
I sit and I chat over coffee
With a guy who can be so much more.


I enjoy these afternoon conversations.
They reach from Asimov to Boltzmann,
From global warming to human centralization,
From the scientist to the clergyman.


It's refreshing to talk with someone
About those far-reaching implications.
But in a few months, I'll finally abandon
This town for a university across the nation.


The subject turns to silence
As a spring thunderhead rolls from the West.
Eventually this close alliance
Will, like a decrepit dog, be put to rest.


I tell him it's a shame.
He shouldn't be stuck here.
He has the intellect to stake his claim
At any school in this hemisphere.


He shrugs it off,
Says I'm mistaken.
Insists college professors would only scoff
And dismiss him as an aberration.


But he's wrong, and I make that clear;
He has the potential for science,
So why remain a cashier?
I can't be the only aspirant
Of our dynamic duo;
He likewise loves space,
And wants to get out of this place,
So go, man -- go!


But he shakes his head,
And forgoes his charmismatics.
He says that he'll take community college instead,
Because he's not good at mathematics.


But you're going to learn,
I ardently profess,
Math is hard, but don't be concerned;
Just try, and to hell with the rest!


Again, he withdraws,
His coffee starts to deplete.
Says I'm going to a school for the elite,
And I wouldn't know about flaws.


But he's wrong, as I made a point to contest,
I'm no smarter than he.
I just tried my best,
And I made plenty of blunders, I'm sure he'd agree.


He doesn't need to start in Ivy.
Instead, he can start saving his dollars,
Because he has the ability
To work his way up from someplace smaller.


But he refuses again,
Says it's just a fantasy to him.
After all, his lovely girlfriend
Couldn't bear to see him leave here.


Again, we fall into silence;
I suppose that's how it goes.
Another small town kid beaten into compliance
By the low aspirations everyone else imposed.


When I'm in college, I'll think back to my friend,
We'll likely drift apart, but for now this thunderstorm portends
Wastefulness beyond measure, shame of great magnitude.
Will I have left a potential Sagan in backwater solitude?