I was chatting with a friend this evening, and somehow, through the way the conversation meandered, I found myself thinking about a guy who was in my writing program at Governor's School. We weren't close, didn't even get along all that great, and I literally hadn't though of him for years, but when I Googled him, I found that he died 5 years ago. What an odd feeling it is when you discover that someone you knew years back died, and you didn't even discover it until years later. It was 14 years ago that we were at Governor's School together, and I remember that he was the only guy in our poetry poem. And we all spent the first half of the summer wondering why he was there, because he didn't produce anything at all, good or bad. And then, one day, he just knocked our socks off. Started churning out these poems that totally floored us and just bew us all away. It was crazy. While I was looking at the web pages that mentioned him, I saw that he was a musician and even that an album was released after he died. I can't remember if he had a guitar with him that summer, I assume that he did. I just remember that he wrote a poem called "Look at me, I'm howling" that was a send up of Allen Ginsberg, and how truly impressed I was at how clever it was. Obviously it made an impression, because 14 years later, I can still remember it. And I vaguely remember getting into an argument with him over something, though I have no idea what. I think he was much cooler than me. I was still an insecure fat girl and he clearly had his act together.

So, Flynn Eckenrode, I'm sorry to read about your passing. And sorry I didn't think to look you up sooner.