Down on the Farm of Leland Stanford,
In a house called Jerry did Mark and Kase board.
Mark had his frat brothers,
Kase, a German lover,
They acquainted that Fall, not familiar before.

To expand outside her comfortable bubble,
Kase threw a party in her two-room double.
She then noticed Mark’s smile,
And after a while
Thought “This one will be trouble....”

Mark was bewitched by her pretty blonde hair,
But was saddened to learn of her long distance affair.
So they became friends,
And by the year’s end
A platonic bond they would share.

In Jerry they’d partner on chores and house jobs,
And gossip about dorm couples and slobs.
They'd binge a great show,
Called Game of Thrones,

And bond from its shockers, plot twists macabre.

(Aside: It was not until years later that Kasey admitted to Mark that she didn’t like Game of Thrones as much as she let on, and only used it as an excuse to hang out with him. Ugh. But I digress...)

So friends they’d remain, and that was alright.
Until one fateful spring quarter night.
Mark found himself shaken,
“She’s no longer taken!”
Kasey’s friends relayed with delight.

A little fling they thought it’d be all,
But spring turned to summer, summer to fall.
Mark started senior year,
Kasey, her career,
Yet somehow their love wouldn’t stall.

Mark moved to the City post-graduation,
The two having started their newest vocations.
Kase lived in Swift castle,
Mark, more of a rat hole,
Much to the former’s elation.

 

(Swift castle: Kasey's sparkly clean Pac Heights apartment with her 3 roomies plus Taylor Swift in the form of a large entry hall poster. Mark's rat hole: aka Club 648, a seismically unstable moldy hallway in North Beach with 4 "bedrooms" decorated year-round with Christmas lights. It also doubled as a late night karaoke bar).

Kasey the cougar would tolerate Mark
And his compadres in all of their larks.
The City their playground,
Great friendships they found,
And in time they’d move to Alamo Square Park.

And 7 years later in the Fall of ‘19,
A vacation in Italy, new sights and cuisines.
The eighth of November,
The rain they’ll remember,
At a Lake Como villa, Mark got on one knee.

He finally asked, “Will you marry me?”
Kase lost her words, so shocked was she.
But she took the ring,
Quite the new bling,
A new chapter started in their love story.

​

(Alternate ending: "And they'd celebrate with pepperoni." They skipped the champagne, but dug into a plate of cheese and cured meats shortly after the proposal.)