Lost Room Dream

Even after decades

I still have the same old dream.

College, final exams.

I cannot find the exam room for my economics class.

In fact, I had forgotten to attend classes all semester long.

But now finals, must try to take them.

But cannot even find the room.

Up and down the stairways, wide and sunny,

back and forth down the hallways, narrow and dusty,

peering into rooms, rows of desks,

windows, chalkboards, stacks of test booklets.

But nothing is familiar. I cannot find the room.

Years later in real life I returned to Louvain, Belgium,

where I had attended, but not completed, graduate school.

The classroom had been there in the same place

since Andreas Vesalius, 400 years:

an ancient stately room of learning

along a cobblestone street. But once again,

like in my dream, I cannot find the room.

I cannot find, the room.