On a rainy April Friday
Sorting through a pile of in-mail
There I chanced upon a red book
Only that and nothing more

Not a red book of the Mao type
Nor the fashion mag type either
But a chronicle of gentlemen
And ladies in small numbers

Best and brightest from the sixties
Gearing up to head to Cambridge
For a thirty-fifth reunion
At a place of long ago

Survivors of the trauma
That was known as Harvard Law
Now a novel and a movie
That your grandkids probably saw

Some reports are as expected
Senior partner, general counsel
With long marches near concluded
To retirement's golden door

But surprises through the pages
Some unlawyerly diversions
Priests and presidents of colleges
And docents of museums

Change managers and therapists
And crafters of fine furniture
Curators of photographs
And radio celebrities

Porcelain collectors
And bioethics researchers
Poets, yes, and novelists
And roasters of the bean

Our esteemed Attorney General
And at least one man who sues her
A Nigerian Chief Justice
And a consul in Bermuda
A gaggle of professors
Judges federal, state and local
Who somehow got confirmed

And what about the silent ones?
The one-liners and two?
Are they happy, are they healthy?
MIA or just too shy
To tell their classmates what they do?

Mega-cities still the magnet
Gotham, Boston, LA, DC
And their green and leafy suburbs
Yet the address list is global
The Sun Belt has allure
And the Santa Fe colony grows

The world now shifts before us
In kaleidoscopic fashion
The certainties of Ike-time
Seem a million miles ago

When we started, a profession
Now increasingly a business
Swept into the mainstream
Of a world designed by Hobbes

It's a world we never dreamed of
But have lent a hand creating
With Web addresses and email
Beepers, cell phones, pagers, fax

Some of us have joined it
Having fun and making waves
In the new cyber-arena
Using skills learned long ago

As you read the red book stories
Heed the message of Stepanian
And the wisdom of the Waxman

Seize the moments, use them wisely
For the obit list grows longer
Both random and relentless
Narrowing the company
Of those who carry on

Our challenges remain
Now with different names and faces
Not the sumptuous corner office
But the energy for coping
Time for trips and explorations
And our place in generations
In the flow of family time

Twas a pleasant weekend time warp
Names and places long forgotten
Brought front/center by the red book
On to 40! Best to all!

(your stanza here - or wherever above seems most appropriate)