Book Learning

Pictures reveal
enough

you eight years ago
your hair cut short

Still beholden to
adolescent gawkiness

its grip on you
particularly tenacious

such progress made
and yet not enough

aware of this
your leitmotif of
knowing the need
for growing up

is a well-intended but
unkempt New Year’s Resolution

a gym membership used
extensively for all of two weeks

If only life experiences
Could be stamped into a passport

Then you’d have it made

If there was a Study Relationships Abroad
program, you’d have
signed up for that, too

And excelled, of course

If feeding the poor
in a work camp in Africa

If observing everyone
else’s interaction

with rapt interest
meant trials and travails
conquered by osmosis

If only, if only

here, resumes are only helpful
to an extent

it's not where you worked
it's what you learned there

Romance is not a sociology thesis
Uncovered from direct questioning
Observation
And diligent research

It must be experienced
Even if no one ever knows
(and may never know)

The ultimate letter grade