Poem

To a prospective student:
Pre-frosh, are you grinning
For your grown-up life beginning?
Is Columbia so beguiling
That it finds you ever-smiling?

The sky was gray and bluish bleak that February day:
All chocolate hearts and greeting cards and freshly trimmed bouquets.
The air was filled with promises of roses and of wine—
Except for those unlucky folks who had no Valentine.