Goodnight, Maroon

Our hero grows up and moves to Cambridge: a poem

By Dan Forward

oodbye Newton

Goodbye Brighton

Goodbye B Line, taking an hour to get to Allston

Goodbye Eagle’s

And burgers by the ton

Goodbye Mary Ann’s

Goodbye Superfans

Goodbye Sunset, and White Horse

Goodbye Pino’s

Goodbye college

Yes, goodbye Heights

Goodbye chicken fingers

Stolen from Late Night

And goodbye to the swim-team captain

Gabe once beat in a fight

Goodbye Jesuits

Goodbye reservoir run

Flutie bless us, everyone.

Hello Cambridge

Hello Longfellow bridge

Hello, wanna go anywhere? Gotta take a bridge

Hello stupid bikers

Who missed killing me by a smidge

Hello Red Line

Hello Bartley’s, not often open

For whose patties I’m always hopin’

Hello what must be at least half of the Northeast’s homeless population

Crowding outside Harvard station

Hello Coop and Harvard Book Store

And Grolier’s, and a hundred more

Hello Harvard

Hello Square

Hello picture-taking tourists

Absolutely everywhere

And to my absentee roommate

Dan “Tonight I will watch a whole season of the West Wing” Bear.

Hello adult life

This three-month lease will be fun

But can I go back to college now? I’m not ready to be done.