We sit in a tent in case it rains
gently on this moist New England lawn
as a young alum speaks
who might be the country's president someday
about turning memories to poetry
an event is not complete
until it becomes memory
He talked with survivors
in war-torn corners of the globe
raises the power of youth
boy soldiers
the untapped potential of girls
who learn only to be raped
though he doesn't use that word
using social media to promote change
his famous mother's impatience
the value of impatience
because it leads to action
Two new graduates speak together
about the value of friendship
during transitions
The old college president speaks
To texts and social media
turning our brains into mush
uniformity as the obesity
resulting from this mental diet
The value of long arguments with those around us
reading books
walks in the woods untracked by GPS
private lives
The graduates march
to the sounds of Scottish bagpipes
and a gong from Burma
where the college will start an outreach branch
as they have in prisons and New York high schools
I am happy for my son's time here
free from the tyranny of cellphone and wifi
surrounded by bright young minds and old trees
Less worried that I never taught him his place
because I don't know mine
He will step into the dance and change
it because the dance changes
whenever somebody steps in
I wonder who took my role
alone on the tall tree swing
at the last graduation and the next
with the gowned professor saying
I like to see adults being children
