I asked for your blessing…
  instead you explained

What I should be thinking
  to lessen your pain

You told me if only
  I’d say it this way

My words could have meaning
  and influence—sway

But power and fortune
  are not what I sought

If influence only
  gets brokered and bought

So the blessing passed over
  your lecture now done

A last vow to myself
  —from you I must run

(Villanova Pennsylvania: June, 2016)