Work Boots

Trampling to class in their work boots,

the students bear heavy thoughts.

They have plowed through their homework,

a sometimes harrowing experience;

they have milked their assignments

of every ounce of juice,

fed data into computers,

carried many numbers, raised questions,

built theories, labored over problems,

lugged abstruse notions fetched from far off -

listen: sandals or thongs

just wouldn't do.