The World Lost Out

by Robert Pegel

There is a North Face backpack in my son’s room still.
Loaded with textbooks and notebooks and pens and pencils
from the beginning of his sophomore school year in high school.
He never knew he wouldn’t need them anymore.
Our son had dinner with us that night. 
I picked up burritos on the way home from work.
Later that night He came down from his upstairs bedroom 
and told my wife and me that his teacher recommended that he be
promoted to an advanced Spanish class at school.
I asked him if he was sure that’s what he wanted.
Told him the regular class was an easy A for his GPA.
He didn’t care about that.
Of course he didn’t.
He was such a good kid.
His classmates loved him.
No one ever had a bad word to say about him.
The world can be so randomly cold and heartless.
He died in his sleep that night.
The world lost out.
We’re reminded every single day.

Robert has been published in Door is a Jar, North Dakota Quarterly, MockingHeart Review, The Corvus Review, ZiN Daily, Fevers of the Mind and others.