Salad Days

College street
on the first warm April day,

half-naked young men and women
prancing in the grass like elves,

smoking in plastic chairs,
frisbees slicing the air.

Will they remember
their proud bare bellies

melanoma-free
youth sprouting all around them?

Will they remember afternoons
with nothing to do

but throw beanbags
into wooden boxes,

the sexual tension,
the temptation of beach towels?

Will they remember
these days of bookless learning,
these salad days?