The Childe to the Dark Future Came?

I.

It was my notion that they all spoke falsehood
         Then and there, friend and family alike
         And (later) when I realized truth, I wanted to take a hike
I wanted to escape from the geas, if I only could
But I was never ever sure that I should
         How could I understand back then? I was but a small tyke          

II.

We all realize at some point in time
         That life is limited, it is true
         And as years go by, I saw time as it flew
But my early quest was still only mine
I needed to get my life in line!
         Oh, if only and only if I knew!

III.

My father sat me down one day
         “College,” he said, “Is what matters.
         If you screw school up, your life will be in tatters!”
And that's how despair and fear lay
On the heart, weight so heavy it may
         Crush a man or a boy, it's so easy to fall from greased ladders

IV.

Witness: dreams are as fragile as answers A, B, C, or D
         [(3x^2-27)divided by 4)] times[ 8x^2) divided by(9-3x)]divided by [(x^2+3x) divided by 6] = A
         Or so you may say
But look here, the answers say the proper response is letter D, can't you see?
Looks like you've failed your test; shattered your dream, now where will you get your degree?
         In the light of despair and failure, hope is so easy to flay

V.

“We have high expectations for you,” says everyone
         I am so deathly scared to disappoint
         And within me, these fears I do anoint
And they drive me to near madness, I MUST always succeed, there is no time to run
“Don't screw this up,” says dad, “Don't mess up the rest of your entire life, my son.
         College is, of course, your pinnacle penultimate point.”

VI.

We may all look like fond friends
         But school is a competition, no lies here
         It does not take an oracle or a seer
To see classmates fight over appeal and GPA and never make amends
The admissions process sees to it that we remain friendly enemies to bitter ends
         The future fills me to the brim with frenzied frightened fear.

VII.

The paper lay before me
         My heart beating faster in my chest
         With darkening thoughts coming into my head to nest
The damned exam, oh how I wanted to flee
Oh, merciful god, how could I get an E?
         How could I fail this test?

VIII.

The days are a blur
         My future is now a hard wall
         With such a steep moat and deep fall
But what does it matter, you dumb cur?
Fail a test, you lose at life. It is de jure.
         And at this wall after the fall who could hear my pitiful call?

IX.

Any hole a man digs into he can escape from
         I scaled the side of the pit
         Without any need for a climber's kit
Unaided, undaunted, yet still very afraid to fail, I come
Out of the hole that tested my resolve, I continue down the path and I hum
         A sad simple tune, as my world does flit

X.

High school moves so very fast
         Faster and rapider still
         And it isn't until
You realize it won't always last
And forever is not some hardy mast
         That will stand tall, and oh, I feel ill

XI.

I'm sickened by pressure
         A continual bombardment
         Of commitments, necessities, and tasks that are adamant
That I must preserve to prepare for my future, else my life goes through a thresher
What if by the end, I am just a beheaded stalk of grain, a husk, nothing left to measure?
         Even Prometheus would weep, if I poked through the firmament.

XII.

The trials and the tribulations
         The darkness and the uncertainty
         Sometimes it feels so lonely
To make your limited life good, you must make the translation
From high school to College, and with learned information through evaluation
         Improve your quality of living, hopefully.

XIII.

So now, in the 13th hour.
         After my scholastic life is aflame
         And my problems are calm and tame
Now, maybe, I'll have the power
To lift the horn to my lips, witness my own Dark Tower
         Saying, “The Childe to the Dark Future Came."