despite years of education

if you were
to saw
open
the skulls of
college students
on summer vacation
you would hardly
find the complex
topography of
scholarly wisdom
rather
a very soft
gelatin
sloshing
from left
to right
like a slow
arrhythmic
tide crashing
against the
hard heads
of stubborn
and irresponsible
malcontents
but let’s
not
forget
their teachers
piddling away
in gardens
wearing
over-sized
hats feeling
dangerous
after two
half-glasses
of chardonnay
their highbrow
magnificence
slowly paddling
to the middle
of their own
senselessness
stopping
to admire
a pair of birds
circling
birds they can’t
quite name
as they slosh
back and forth
over delicate
currents of
aberration
and ineptitude
but
I suppose
that’s what
summer vacation
is all about
various points
of error
like dimly
flashing buoys
some close
enough to swim to
others
only a distant eye
blinking through
thick fog
as just
another reminder
of our own mortality