By: Jerry Palmer
As autumn slips into its colder phase,
The Grove grows quiet under softer days.
Students scatter home like leaves on wind,
The semester’s rush now slowing to an end.
Parking lots once packed from edge to edge
Stand open now. An empty, welcome pledge.
Spots that took a prayer and two U-turns to claim
Sit waiting, wide and still, without a single name.
Classrooms dim as cancellations spread,
Professors sending one last note before they head
Into their own warm break, their own soft rest
A pause we all admit is for the best.
Thanksgiving settles into Oxford’s air,
With kitchen scents and family calls everywhere.
The campus exhales, peaceful and light,
As season and students drift into the night.
And in the hush, Ole Miss stands tall,
Holding space for every soul who’ll soon return
When winter passes, and spring reopens its door
A cycle we know, and still love, even more.