By Grant Bergland

After a B.A. in English

You’ll have seen see the rooms where women come and go talking of Michelangelo,

remember poor players that strut and fret their hour on the stage,

and believe truth is beauty and beauty truth and that is all you need to know.

After a B.A. in English

You may imagine how dovelike thou might sit brooding on the abyss and make it pregnant.

Or parade metaphors before a desked audience to teach and delight.

Or work a nine to five in an office, which might make you apt to forget to remember.

After a B.A. in English

You may discover how sharing with them, sharing with them, does not put money in your pockets.

You might be poor and go without the meat and curse the bread.

Maybe you’ll wonder why, why did you take the road less traveled by?

But, After a B.A. in English

You will always remember how she walked in beauty like the night,

your soul, deep inside will know that surely this is all not without meaning.

And this, and this pagan creed outworn will nourish you no matter the hurt,

and you’ll waltz yourself off to bed, books pressed tightly to your shirt.

Comments from 2009 Donald Markos Poetry judge:

"This poem's witty romp through some of the best-known lines of an English major's journey while facing the realities of life gave me pleasure on each reading.  I appreciated the final couplet." Berkeley poet Nellie Hill