Another Year

Rollerbags, moms and dads, boxes, pickup trucks, caps and gowns, the trees in forest green, the nights abrupt, the days everlong, the heat a-searing
The end must be near
Another year
Another year committed to history
Friends a-fleeting
Off to summer's promise of sun, sea and for some, work

The streets that were once lined with cars and filled with the hubbub of daily life
Now lay empty in the wake of the exodus
Chairs filled with smiling, crying, angry and sleepy youths
Now are open for the winds to erode
The days are at peace, the nights void of the usual music and campus drama
The familiar distant faces that passed by on the way
Here to be found, they are not

The empty buildings echo between each other
To tell the tales of another year
The extravagant, the conventional, the sinner, the saint
All have left
Only the brave remain to endure the sticky and empty days

Another annum
They came with hope and nerves
They left with wisdom and fatigue
Some to never return
And here I am
Seeing all that has been lost