Gaudeamus Igitur

Commencement, 1958

Bees, queen-stricken,

roar in the fat wistarias

dizzy over the wet umber clay

which stains the pearly pumps

of Miss Bobbie Sue Rice,

Kappa Alpha Gamma, blonde, majoring

in Phys. Ed. For Women

With Emphasis On Social Games And Swimming.

She will be pulled

in today's Pushcart Derby

by Wanda Allyn Linkenfelder

and Doris Lurene Atkins

dressed in white leotards as bunnies.

Miss Bobbie Sue Rice,

Kappa Alpha Gamma, blonde,

dizzy on the wet umber clay

with cokes and happiness,

has come from the tea in the Student Union

given by the New Alums 'n' Moms.

She will hold roses,

white, with an enormous lavender bow,

poised in a flush

of modesty and self-awareness

in the back of a white Pontiac

driven by Buzz Allen,

Alpha Delt, College of Commerce, track.

Miss Bobbie Sue Rice

late of the Sunshine Bible Class

down home in May's Lick, Kentucky,

Miss Bobbie Sue Rice

is a Future Homemaker and a Name

in Y-Teens, county, state, and local.

She is standing at the brink

of the final ecstasy and triumph.

The time draws near

for the convertible procession;

then the Derby; then the voting.

She knows a little secret-

who the Queen of Greek Week will be.

Daddy will put his arm

around her mother when they see her.

It will be hard for her not to cry,

Miss Bobbie Sue Rice

Sweetheart of Alpha Delta.

Her cheeks turn pretty underneath her make-up

at the thought of what happened

last week-end with the two Alpha Delts

in the motel:

but she has the voice and vote

of the whole Chapter now.

She will be Queen of Greek Week.

Daddy's girl won't let her Daddy down.

She sobers for a moment,

approaching the glittering Motorcade;

it's been a long, long road from Mason County.

But with a dizzying rush

of illumination she knows

that today is the end of Something

and the beginning of Something.

Wetting her lips and thrusting her breasts well forward,

smoothing her dress,

she waves to Buzz, she waves to the Future.

Bees, queen-stricken, roar

in the fat wistarias,

excreting golden sweetness for her moment.