Gary Ciocco
It’s Academic
The student has a one-point-six
but pipes up, has good things to say,
you know.
The student has a one-point-six
and doesn’t know who Robert Pirsig
was, how he said the best students are
always failing, in a counter-cultural
classic, and how you’re not sure what he
meant with that line, or the book overall,
so you don’t quote him anymore,
though you think perhaps you still could
and perhaps you still should.
The student has a one-point-six
and has never heard of Route 66,
which may be for the best, as you are
not sure whether there are any
kicks to be had out there anymore.
The student takes a test, gets a grade,
ups his GPA, and does not protest.
And you wake up again, and wonder
why, grades be damned, he does
not seem to protest anything at all,
why social justice seems condensed
into a course now, and what kind
of humanities professors again go
gently but fervently into the
Irish bar, railing to be reborn,
dying of thirst.