That year at Oakland High
When we were seventeen,
The grass from there to San José
Was tall and cool and green.
I see it now.
Too young and brash was I
To know what time could mean.
That old acacia long cut down
Was felt but never seen.
I see it now.
That world I knew is lost to me,
Loves have come and gone.
The years go racing by.
I live as best I can,
And all at once I know it means
The making of a man.
I see it now.
William Engvick, “I See It Now” (music by Alec Wilder)