Sunday, April 6, 2014

This is College (NaPoWriMo #6)




This is where I play the role of punctuation prophet, pointing to the use
Of apostrophes for pluralization purposes
As a sign of imminent apocalypse.

This is where I draw cartoon faces on commas and semicolons
In order to breathe life into sentence boundary lessons.

This is where I seek substantiation and supporting evidence. 

This is where I push against passivity, and insist
On opening the text and returning to it repeatedly.

This is college.
This is where I shouldn’t have to give pop quizzes
In order to get them to read.
But I do.

This is where the dudebro in the back of my class yawns
And asks, When is this shit due again?

This is where I work myself up
Into a nearly perfect state
Of post-midterm self-pity.

And then
This is where a student stops me
And says,
I haven’t read a whole book
Since sixth grade
But I read that one you assigned us in just two days
Because it was
So awesome.
Thank you.

This is where everything
Is bright and right again.
This is where I live to teach another day.

***
This poem was inspired by the "This is Where" poetry contest sponsored by the Miami Herald.  You can read more about it here.  Since I don't live in Florida, I am not qualified to write a poem for their contest, but I was inspired by the "This is Where" idea.  


2 comments:

  1. Love the juxtaposition of dudebro and sixth-grade reader! This is certainly why if not where.

    ReplyDelete
  2. You can smile but u can't make 'em smile back... sure nice when they do tho!

    ReplyDelete