Weekly Slaughter Tribute Poems
Last week, we announced the winning poems submitted to the Slaughter Stairs Tribute Contest. But many honorable mentions remain! We publish them here in honor of the Slaughter Stairs—slaughtered, but not forgotten.
From a 1L who never knew Slaughter Stairs
Thomas Murphy ’27
How to know a stair n'er stepped?
You dream it in your hours slept
You feel its hole when squeezing through
Its stand-in's doors and stairs askew
I once was told 'bout hallways wide
With light to bring the sky inside
But now I step into the dark
Where long lost Wahoos once did lark.
Perhaps one day again we'll find
A staircase open as law's mind
Til then I climb to Slaughter numb
And cry - Sunt Lacrimae Rerum!
Untitled
Brad Lewinski ’26
Consider the Spies Garden bee.
As it flits and buzzes through falling leaves and blooming flowers,
it does not consider for a moment
its place as an integral cog in a machine it did not design.
It knows nothing of the pain of an Alex Johnson cold call,
it fails to understand why the creatures inhabiting oaken furniture
instinctually dart away whenever it flies just a little too close.
Still, the bee at least understands its purpose.
It builds hives because it cannot pollinate every flower alone
and serves a queen that will one day meets its end just like
the flowers the bee fertilizes and the grass-bound ants it flies above.
And still, it will wake and do the same again.
One could say it belongs.
Consider the human.
We wake to a sunrise we cannot control and lay our heads down to sleep
in a cruel acceptance that we've failed, once more, to slow the march of time.
In our acrimony we set our sights on stairs assisting students just trying to find
the very thing that comes so naturally to the bee; our purpose, and
decide that if we cannot control the sun, the moon, the tides, or the leaves,
at least we can do something about the damn stairs.
Would the bee,
so engrossed in its tasks, ever decide to destroy the hive?
Were it to know currency and markets and resource scarcity would it really
spend to destroy a thing it won't know it'll miss until it's gone?
But we've got something on the bee. Indeed,
what the bee will never do is cherish what time has left in its wake.
It will never reminisce over a rough exam or
offer Smarties to those who just might need them.
So perhaps, while we accidentally bump shoulders with those on the
same (now cramped) staircase as us, we should take these serendipitous collisions as signs
to remember the rivers we cannot step into again, the radiant flowers in bloom,
and the people we treasure who will soon walk different halls in different offices in different cities.
Perhaps, if we do this well,
we can stand among the bees and know that we too, belong.
Vybz Kartel (from the perspective of the Slaughter Stairs)
Amelia Isaacs ’26
xo xo
my love is very special
if you want it you can have it
but don't take me for granted
so much, so much
so much things
I did not say
Untitled
Anonymous
WE CRY OUT IN MOURNING
FOR OUR BELOVED STAIRS
TAKEN WITHOUT WARNING
BY STUDENT AFFAIRS
Untitled
Zoe Kiely ’25
Where are the stairs now?
This is a fire escape.
R-I-P Slaughter.
A Ghazal for the Slaughter Stairs
Miles Cooper ’26
On Slaughter Stairs we stand no more,
Our footsteps fade upon the floor.
We yearn for steps that are no more,
But time has changed what we adore.
The halls we knew we now explore,
Without the path we walked before.
They took away what we implore,
To bring back what we had before.
In memories, we will restore,
The Slaughter Stairs we tread no more.
A Lewd Limerick
Miles Cooper ’26
At Virginia Law stood the Slaughter Stairs,
Where 1Ls would sneak their secret affairs
But renovations came through,
Now there is nowhere to screw,
{creativity ran out here}
Untitled
Paige Harris ’27
As a 1L, I am in hell
Not because of readings or section drama
But because of the stairs that fell
Although I never walked them
I can only imagine the hush
Of my friends and I gossiping on the stairwell
As we see my law school crush
Maybe it’s good they are no more
Because if steps could talk
Of reputation, 2 and 3Ls would be poor
Without the stairs, I feel I’ve been robbed
A key part of campus…
US News won’t even give us a nod
You can slaughter the stairs and slaughter my grades
But one thing you will never take
Are the memories of better walkways
Thank you to all who submitted and a special thanks to Malia Takei '25, Elizabeth Patten '25, and Micah Stewart '25 for organizing this contest. May the Slaughter Stairs rest in peace.