To get a degree
you need to be
(which I was never)
clever.

I'm what they called a late developer,
the picture being taken I was just late in
appearing to be
and no degree

It makes sense to me
that's more sense
than the syllabus made
and
educated on the lean streets of a mean town
is it any wonder I let people down?

whatever
how clever or if ever I'll be
I can't say I miss not having
that degree because
I've met idiots with honours
and
fools with some brains inside
and out of those
hallowed
halls of academia

being a romanticist I realise I might muse on what it is that I missed
but
if it was never no matter how clever in the stars for me

I will not worry endlessly.