An Alien in Their Midst

I was seventeen,
And maybe that is
The best excuse I have.
It had been a tumultuous year
At the University,
One marked by
Massive student protests
Against the War in Vietnam.
The campus was a hotbed
Of radical political theories
And mindless student activism
And I wasn't immune
To those influences.
When the break came
Between my freshman
And sophomore years
I decided I wanted to get
A summer job with a company
That was established
By a distant relative
At least a century before.
There were still
A number of relatives
In high level positions
Within the company.
One of them happened to be
The Chief Executive Officer,
So after I hitchhiked
From Michigan to
Baltimore, Maryland
Where the company
Was headquartered,
And called him up.
To my complete suprise
Idiscovered that
He had passed away
Two weeks before,
And miracle of all miracles,
His funeral was that day,
So I was invited.
Not knowing any better,
I showed up as I was,
Decked out in striped
Bell bottom pants
And a flowered shirt.
Though the clothes
Fit in well at the university,
They weren’t exactly
Accepted funeral attire,
Thus I stuck out
Like a sore thumb
In a crowd of some
Five thousand people.
I didn’t have sense enough
To keep my mouth shut either,
And my radical notions
Confirmed beyond a doubt
I was an alien in their midst.
Fortunately for me,
One of my uncles grabbed me
And pulled me out of there
Before I got lynched
By the somewhat less than
Appreciative crowd.
Needless to say,
I never ended up working
For that company.
In hind sight,
That was probably a good thing
Because even to this day
I don’t think I could fit
Working within a factory setting.