Your day starts the night before

Wedging between you and sleep is a pile of ungraded papers
anticipation, anxieties and that one kid
Is it he that bothers you, or are you just bothered by him?

It’s still night when you wake up dark, shower
to the an old unwanted Rush song in the head, hurry
out the door, shoulders pressed with bags, lunch, stuff

Pass the smokers on the corner, gothic or whatever
skippers drifting the other way, driven and lost
smell the parched trash, it’s starting to get light out

Enter the door, first words you hear “fuck, nigger, bitch”
check your mailbox, voicemail, email
announcements, conversation, last-minute-pre-minute

You can’t make copies, the copier is broken
the bodies, the noise, the interruptions
florescent lights radiate through the cold air as the heat doesn’t work

2nd hour: screaming in the hall, drop your clipboard
girl swinging wildly while Math tries to hold her
American Literature, Dance, and Science are out keeping other students
at bay, here comes English
“Get the Fuck off Me!”

now it’s 9:14 am and you’re solving for distance,
knowing velocity and time, a supersonic plane goes
60 miles in 3 minutes – “Fast” you say