The 540 Days Poem by Chris Haifley

Broken down, chained in, trapped in an atmosphere of power,
For an education, we get blocked out from the rest of the world,
And we adapt to be content.
But trapped in a world of superiors and regulations we have a secret hope to escape,
(When I get out of here, when we leave...)
We anticipate the day but dare not to dream,
For if we do it will only open our eyes to the injustice and misery that surrounds us.

They have given us the first taste of freedom,
And quickly retraced the chains,
To drag us back to our studies,
(For it will come with time)
And we're content, but we want to go Now,
But like they said,
It will come with time,
It will come with time.

The cold stone of Leaving is chilled in our guts,
And we realize that now is our chance, our turn,
Being forced ahead, we can't help but look back,
At all the numbness and suffering we've gone through,
But we have gone through it together,
And we think,
(Maybe it was worth it)
In times of trial, we are forced together,
And in turmoil we only grow stronger,
So maybe it was meant to be, maybe these years have not been in vain,
Maybe this was the plan all along,
But all I know now in this point in time,
Is that I do not want to leave.

But still, we go our separate ways,
Turn the corner, and scramble into new formations, find new connections,
And think about how it was, three years ago,
With this goal on our minds,
(Now we've made it, we got this far)
As we settle into our new ways,
More alone than before, maybe this isn't what we thought it would be,
But it's better than being under the rule of ridiculousness.

The memories and experiences of our middle years will last us a lifetime,
And keep us warm inside through the next four years,
Our latent connections, will last an eternity,
And keep us in that moment of time,
And even though the years may pass,
And our connections may collapse,
We will always keep Norwayne in our hearts.