Poem: Autumn Lost
I failed calculus in Grade 13 after an excruciating year of not trying hard enough not to fail calculus. But, I had excuses! For example, there were an awful lot of colours.
Victoria Panos eventually illustrated a procrastinatory poem I wrote and we included it in our webcomic, The Stairwell, after I was safely graduated and the derivative of cot(x) couldn’t hurt me anymore.
‘Neath boughs of flame and fractal smoke
Trudge throngs of surly student-folk:
Their eyes earthbound with chronic dread,
They miss the rapture overhead.
Lost to them: the weeping skies,
The plumm’ting pods of crimson dyes,
The storms of topaz, flax, and gold
Exhaust themselves unsung, unfold
‘Till nought by ambers, bled to beige,
Cake sidewalk, street; the crowd’s malaise
Precludes its wonder, dulls its sight:
This autumn street at noontime, night.
‘Tis for their loss that fiercely yearns
My heart: my pen’s most worthy turns
To ward, preserve this truest day
For times that eyes might gratis, stray.
… So, would I could my thoughts eschew
Of math assignments overdue.
2002