Good night, Ilsley, our old friend.

With thanks and admiration

we’ll watch with eager eyes and hearts

your budding transformation.

Last month your weary doors swung shut.

For sixteen months, we’ll wait,

full-knowing they will swing again

to help us celebrate.

It’s not goodbye, dear loyal pal,

but rather, au revoir.

We’ll see you on the other side

when you’ll become our shining star.

We say good night to threadbare rugs,

and cramped and danky spaces,

to bumpy ramps and dim-lit lamps,

and undersized bookcases.

To elevators getting stuck,

and heating that was spotty.

To anxious bottoms plopping down

in locked and chilly potties.

It’s our great fortune, as we wait,

your staff has set, with speed,

a home for our books, with lovely looks—

most everything we need.

Just down the street, inside the Bank,

you’ll find, without a doubt,

the perfect mini-Ilsley home—

be sure to check it out.

So, buckle up, our Ilsley friend;

prepare to shift your gears.

Like us, we know you’ll serve and grow

another hundred years.

Ted Scheu

Middlebury