10 minutes after each class
and scattered throughout the day
the lessons of Miller and Mayhew
appear in my cluttered head
and place my thoughts
in different piles
nothing very orderly
but better than before
or maybe worse

Miller who was detained
at the Canadian border
for trying to smuggle
the pornographic literature
of Lawrence Whitman and Ginsburg

Mayhew who trumpets her birthday
and digs Monty Python
William Shakespeare
Bessie Smith
and eloquently describes mead halls

They teach me literature
and then cast out onto the streets of America’s Finest City
and the buildings flaw me
and men in ties
seem to chase me
down B street
screaming, “your our guy!!! You’re our guy!!!”

Do Miller and Mayhew know what they are doing to me?
Do they realize that they are whittling away the already thin chances
I may one day be a sales manager?

Can they comprehend the thought that after a semester of their teaching
I have now been rendered a useless employee at my job?

Nothing else matters now except the reading and the writing
it’s all or nothing for me now
no settling for a career I don’t love
and in the end
I’ll thank Miller and Mayhew

or blame them

blame them or thank them for their enlightenment