walking, chatting, 
 groups of students, 
 some lost in conversation, 
 others somewhere off in their minds; 
 reaching, searching, wondering, 
 wanting, asking, sometimes received or receiving -- 
 like ants on an anthill, 
 each to their owns tasks and lives. 

on an early morning, 
 a solitary walker, 
 no longer a student, and 
 with none to converse with; 
 aching, empty, overwhelmed, 
 wanting, past asking, unreceivable -- 
 like a roach in the corpse of a dead building, 
 only seeming alive from a distance. 

time, passing like a curtain between acts -- 
 those who leave never really learn; 
 those who learn never really leave