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Deepti Choubey, We Hardly Knew Ye

A Poetic Tribute to Classmates We Never Met

By Sharon C. Yang

Seniors are still trying to do it all. During these past few weeks, our overachieving Harvard mentality has prevented us from leaving stones unturned, chores unfinished and goals unfulfilled. Students are "bumping into" potential senators in "random" places, eager to cement "lasting friendships." Shopping carts filled with food from the Kahiki Cafe zoom out of Loker as the last cents of Crimson Cash disappear. The Widener stacks reek of bodily fluids. Several sorry individuals are still trying out for Crimson Key. And John Harvard is more pissed than usual.

We, however, have done none of the above. As others scurried through the Yard to pay their fines, we idly sat by, raising our eyes only to mock them with piercing stares. We refused to pack, do laundry or shower. One day, while wallowing in our own filth, we had a bit of an epiphany. We stank. Rather than climbing the tree of knowledge offered by our school, we followed the path of sloth.

As we wiped the scum from our bodies, we vowed to make a change. During the final hours of our undergraduate careers, we would like to salute some of the classmates we never got to meet. They are emblematic of dreams unrealized. With the drive of worker bees, we look into our hearts and write.

Lyndsi Ronnell Alysia Crowder: A la William Carlos Williams

This is just to say

I wish I had met you

At the Last Chance Dance.

Perhaps you were ill

Or have a boyfriend.

My loss

Is so sweet and so cold.

Chad Daniel Nielsen: A Limerick

A fine yearbook picture of Chad,

A many-activities lad--

UNITE!, IOP,

STAHR and U.C.

If you lied, it was so very bad.

April de la Rosa Genovese: A Chaucerian Dedication

Whan that April with her shoures sote

Her Expressions group hath danced to the rote.

And tumbled every game with swich good cheer

Of which vertu engendered is the fear

Of opposing football team of Yale

Inspired hath in every dune and dale.

With Cultural Rhythms, she charmed the londes,

Her Latinas Unidas sought to bridge far strondes.

But, alas, I never met this dame

With generous spirit and beautiful name.

Robert Sung-Bum Lee: An Ode

O mighty Robert, you are strong!

You make us break out into song!

Your prowess in relations fair--

Unparalleled! None can compare!

A model, you, of making peace,

You put to shame dear ancient Greece!

O Mars! Athena! Time is up!

To Robert you must pass the cup!

For he shall rid the world of war,

And global strife shall be no more!

Too bad I never met the lad;

He'll make the U.N. very glad.

Kristofer Jack Thiessen: Open Mic Poetry

Crystal Man.

Method Man.

Methadone.

Method One.

Done.

Blake A. Gleason: A Shakespearean Sonnet

Shall I compare thee to a lumberjack?

Thou art as burly and more sensitive.

You carry cheese on FOP in your backpack

And give young first-years half a will to live.

The 'jack does not use moss as well as you.

His plaid, felt shirt can warm him when he's low.

In snowboard club you wear a different hue,

And slide down slopes in fleece as white as snow.

You're not a lumberjack and that's okay.

You hope that you will be an engineer.

Because you work all night and sleep all day,

You'll rake in millions yearly, do not fear.

So long as men can breathe or eyes can see,

So long, I know you not, and you not me.

Ron Chaim Rosenman: A Haiku

Hardhat in yearbook

Likes puppets, kung fu fighting

I'm a funny guy.

Katherine Elizabeth Hartl & Michael Ming Long Lai: Sung to the theme of "The Brady Bunch"

Here's the story

Of a lovely lady

Who concentrated in biology.

She's a pre-med

She helps the Red Cross

And softball varsity.

Here's the story

Of a man named Mike Lai

Who managed the Science Review.

He did HEALTH

And he did U.N.

That was a preview...

'Til the one day when the lady and this fellow

Took their MCAT with more than just a hunch

So this group

Sent out their applications,

They got in, and they became the Doctor Bunch.

The Doctor Bunch.

The Doctor Bunch.

That's the way they became the Doctor Bunch.

Thirucherai Srinivasan Sathyanarayanan: An Acrostic

Tricky

Hard

Inscrutable

Riddling

Unintelligible

Complex

Hard

Enigmatic

Really hard

Arduous

I wish I had met you, so I would know how to pronounce your name.

Coda

These fragments we have shored against our ruins

But not to slight you. Wevegone mad againe.

Datta. Dayadhvam. Damyata.

Shantih shantih shantih.

Ian Z. Pervil '98 and Sharon C. Yang '98, English and American literature and languages concentrators in Leverett House, were two of the masterminds behind Fifteen Minutes in 1997.

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