Pictured: Drum roll.
First Place:
A Farewell to Stairwell
Christopher de Grandpre ’27
Although I know we’ve had our ups and downs,
You always stepped up where it mattered.
Without your incline I’m inclined to frowns,
Without your railing’s support I’m in tatters.
Always a step above (out of ten, an eleven),
Your banisters guided aspiring barristers along.
But now you’re ascending up to heaven,
Because Led Zeppelin’s playing your song.
As you go on to your second storey,
Your story shall be our duty to share,
Lest 1Ls walk the halls unschooled in your glory,
And the blank wall suffer only blank stares.
You staired well, dear stairwell.
In fact, you staired the best.
So now (much too soon) we bid you farewell,
and lay your fair stairs to rest.
Second Place:
Stairway to Kevin
Delaney Sniffen ’26
Summer came and summer went
And now we’re back in class
But my rhythm feels off somehow
My stride has reached an impasse
It’s hard to tell why I feel stuck
It could be anything at all
Is it the lack of open Slaughter air?
Or because when I have a question about what “nice student attire” means, I don’t know who to call?
The Stairway to Kevin is gone
And Kevin is gone, too
What will guide me, who will guide me
Through my private practice blues?
To 1Ls, this may seem like gibberish
But it’s legalese to me
There’s a staircase-shaped hole in my heart
And a 5-part “URGENT! ACTION REQUIRED IMMEDIATELY!” email I feel like I need
Rest assured, you’re in good hands
Class of 2027
Kevin’s fine (he just retired)
And the Slaughter stairs have gone to heaven
Third Place:
Ode on a Virginian Staircase
Elizabeth Patten ’25
May 14th, I saw you last
Took you for granted
As I brushed right past
Now you’re gone, and I’m in Hell
Trapped inside
A tiny stairwell
Honorable Mentions:
Untitled
Anonymous (to avoid Admin retaliation)
Appreciate the moments
Remember the good times
Hold onto yesterday’s dreams
Amidst today’s horrendous crimes
Chief among them the destruction
Of a hallowed staircase so grand
So ordinary and yet legendary
Extravagant as it was bland
The Slaughter steps brought us
to joys and sorrows abound
They took us back to pastures
To walk Spies round and round
But now our leaders failed us
They took our pride without notice
A power grab this will be recalled as
To expand an office with what purpose?
Our tempers have been tested
Our livelihoods have been tossed
If this be our last stand
Let us ring out what has been lost
Lo! Lo! The stairs that they have taken
We know not what to do
Our lives must be forsaken
The only steps we knew to go through
Where to go
How to get there
I know not what to say
Where to walk
Where to chalk (we can’t)
My aims lead to dismay
The path that was less traveled
Now must be the way
Stolen with the gavelWe mourn each night and day
But want not, lay still, and think of times before
Nary a thought for how we loved, the stairs we steeped in lore
The lives we lived, the steps we took, they’ll be there in the by
We must live on, and climb forth, nevermore the steps for which we cry
An Ode to ‘S Laughter Staircase
Randy Thomas ’25
Oh Slaughter Staircase,
As a 1L you represented our plights
Heavy backpacks taken up a dreaded flight
An ascent worthy of academic overload
As a 2L you were our beacon
A funnel that would lead us to seminars
Smaller spaces to meet our classmates
We finally thought you decent
Perhaps as a 3L
you would have represented our
triumphant landing
A place to spot long-unseen friends
It is only now that I realize
That you embodied so much more
not a merciless act
nor our trials and tribulations,
No, not Slaughter Staircase
But rather, the now stifled
Law School’s laughter
Lost Possibilities (and 1Ls)
Keeley Ausburn ’27
Mourning something you never knew is a fool’s errand
But as we bump shoulders in the narrow way, my thoughts run errant:
In another life, I do not pull myself into a 61 degree stairway
A tucked away door that looks neither majestic nor elegant, but that of a broom closet castaway
From the reaches of heat, windows, or time
My alternate self shan’t have to feel the chips of decades-old paint and grime
There I must not lean aside when a fellow traveler seeks to descend that which I ascend.
With no other pathways, it is on these gritty stairs I do depend.
So, to that other me–the one taking those next steps–
Be in awe of those that let you reach these heights,
And remember the impermanence of the legacy on which your foot rests.
We received so many great submissions that we can't fit them all here. Stay tuned for the remainder next week!