Tears on The Quadrangle


I was warm on the quadrangle
Warm on the grass by the library steps
Eating my sandwich
Watching the bees lunch on the clover
Waiting for Tinsley.

There was much more:
Fishel Cornfield was starting the mower
By the Physics Department

A magnolia branch nudged the portico
Of the Administration Building
The air wafted grass and magnolias
Tinsley was not there.

Dean Phelps introduced a foreigner
To the Chairman of the Romance Languages Department
(The foreigner had misused the conditional)
The Theater of Ubu Ensemble
Marched in funereal splendor
Towards the Drama Department
Bearing on their shoulders
A huge burning book
Tinsley was late again.

A Marxist-Leninist handed me a leaflet:
"We feel that Professor Pelham
-A registered Republican
And contributor to The National Review--
Is unqualified to teach the course:
'Economies of Underdeveloped Nations' ."
A ladybug perched on my arm.