Kaiser

My best enemy

We weren’t always this way

It was our time in 150/151 that brought us together

The two of us

Among the eight elite chosen for that class

Running a gauntlet few could withstand

Let alone desire

You bested me several times

And yet you never triumphed

Quiz after quiz

Assignment after assignment

You came out on top

But when it really mattered, I won

It was at the end of the year that I seized victory

And won your contempt of myself

Final exams

We were all looking to score a win at the end of the season

You came to me with a proposition:

Take a fall and guarantee your victory

I gave no definite reply

But in my head I vowed to best you

And so it was when the scores came out

I was number one

And even more humiliating,

You were number three

Fast-forward a little while

It was yearbook-signing time

I wrote three separate entries in your yearbook

You wrote two in mine

I can tell which one you wrote first

And I still love reading them

The first was the generic one

Good luck, keep in touch, all the usual nonsense we write in high school

The second was a scathing diatribe

Against everything that you deemed wrong with me

The crazy (and strangely enjoyable) thing about it

Was that you were mostly right

Time passes

Memory fades

Forgive; maybe

Forget; never