Like a deer in the headlight
Is fear in the dead of night
You freeze by degrees as you stand there wide-eyed
It’s illusive, irrational
And it feels insurmountable
A creeping and deepening mountain of trouble
You have to show you despise it
That you know the sly lies that it
Hides on all sides in a maze of disguises
Make the past fall behind you
Shake the last walls of residue
Til you’re grounded in now and the future of new
Play for me – a happy tune
Of butterflies and sun and June
Play for me – a dancing reel
To match the lilting joy I feel
Play for me – a solemn dirge
To mark where love and grief converge
Play for me – a mournful air
Perhaps I can find solace there
Play for me – a regal march
To high step through a milestone arch
Play for me – a simple rhyme
So I can clap my hands in time
Play for me – an ancient ode
To guide me on this weary road
Play for me – a lullaby
Of twinkling stars and midnight sky
In for a penny, in for a pound
Never give up until you have found
Not just the pieces but the answer in full
Or you’ll never know how close was the goal
In for a penny, in for a pound
Hard work is scarce while opinions abound
Too often the answer is known by none
Until you’ve slogged through the race to be run
If you find this note it means
Our fight has reached its D-Day
We have planned and mapped and schemed
Through hostile land full survey
Our weapons all assembled now
For our offensive essay
The troops are ready to march forth
From our long-sealed hideaway
Our victory will come at last
A new life won today
Low shuffling roar as the onlookers
Like marbles, each roll to a chair
‘Pomp and Circumstance’ swells and unfurls
A red carpet high up in the air
The black caps come marching in two by two
With the fragrance of freedom fresh and cool
As they step through the last of the twirling hoops
Of the long slinky tunnel of school
After one last powerful stage show
From the gatekeepers of degrees
While the bobbing sea of black diamonds
Keeps from bumping their hats and their knees
Each graduate parades across the stage
To be recognized for their achievement
The taut threads of hush in the audience snap
Into fireworks of bursting excitement
The black caps go marching out two by two
On the swell of the crowd and the music grand
But after all’s quiet, what really counts
Is the hard-won diploma each holds in their hand
Three months of snow and ice and cold
An arctic polar land
Three months of scorching, humid heat
A home on desert sand
And in between, three months of rain
A muddy flooded strand
But the other three months rival none
Rare days of warmth and green and sun
That’s why Ohio’s so grand
