I Came to School to the tune of Bruce Springsteen’s “I Came for You”
College brochures they send me, with their regards
MIT classes. they beckon me, to go there you have to work hard
Wading deep in Shakespeare, I read stuff like Franz Kafka undaunted,
Of that cockroach man, I’ll dream all night, for that AP score I wanted.
But they let my money lack get in the way of these facts
Who could get the bill collectors off my parents’ back?
They couldn’t give me tens of thousands to cover my tab
They said “Here’s an old ratty car and a new backpack”
But that’s not what I came for, and I’m sure you see that too.
I aimed for A’s in math, biology too
But they made me take gym so I got a C
I loved Plato and Socrates, Euripedes too,
But they made me read drivel unfit for MTV
But ninth grade science encouraged me
To experiment with electricity
Crawl into the ambulance, your pulse is getting weak
Tell the EMT what you’ve done tonight, while you’ve got the strength to speak
You mixed lithium and flourine – you should have worn an oxygen mask
You heated strontium and sulfur in an Erlenmeyer flask
So don’t call for your surgeon, even he says it’s too late,
It’s not your lungs this time, chemical reactions sealed your fate.
Give the doctor that antimony, honey he will take it back
To your chemistry teacher and tell him all the facts
Now even Yankee Nuclear wants their pitchblende back,
It’s only a little radioactive, that’s just a chemical fact
Didn’t you think that I knew that you were born with a brain like a locomotive
Able to solve huge equations in a single step?
And you read all the classics with no apparent motive
They weren’t even assigned in AP college prep
And your strength is devastating in the face of all these odds
Remember how you kept me laughing, when it was your turn to question God?
You were not quite so proud when I found you praying on the beach
Remember how you begged for an A in chem, but only a B+ was in your reach
And your SAT math and English were 6 hundred and 6 twenty five
Those Ivy league dream killing scores, they still cling to you like a leach
But that medal you got from NHS always got in the way
Of your dream that the rocker boy with you one day would stay
You were both hitchhikers, but he had his ear tuned to the roar
Of a Brent Hinds Flying-V Custom playing an alien discordant chord
So you left to find a better reason than the guitar he was drooling for
And it’s not your nihilist poetry I came back for
It’s not the way your math books are scattered on the floor
“Cause I’ve broken down your defences and rammed through all your walls
So who am I to ask you to open up your door?
But you should know the truth
I live for school you fool
I’m not dating you
Until I’m a sophomore in college
I love only school you tool
I’m not dating you
I’d much rather increase my knowledge
Of chem and Latin and Physics
Calculus and Greek history too
