When we got through our scholastic years
And have returned to youthful stomping grounds
Hello again to the sweet reality of being extramural
Relieved from reading tome upon heavy tome
Wanting in words to describe the relief the completion caused
From the rigors and hardships of a disciplined way of life
The august halls of the alma mater a prison now behind us
And the parchment scroll did seem irrelevant to our lives then
The college library had rude graffiti on its mottled walls
The carillon pealed from fractured bells tinny hymns
A heavy yellow pall spread clammily on the quadrangle
The dean was in disrespect, the faculty tainted, we were sure
But what of the mind, the nurturing of which, we
Unknowingly, surreptitiously had been honed to face
The challenges of a reality then far imagined
Clearing the muddled glasses of youthful views
Soon we realize that the years behind the ivied walls
Were not stones wasted and skimmed in an algae filled pond
Later as we mused and pondered complexities of existence
That would have stunned us dumb had we not persisted