class schedule

on thursdays, i am a scholar.

a flurry of notes and essays, i walk briskly from class to class

for six consecutive hours. i gather fact after fact,

processing information faster than i'm blinking.

i grab a sandwich and a coffee on my way

to yet another lecture, where i fit breaths between

powerpoint slides and stuff my creativity down

into my backpack with the rest of my belongings.

but on fridays, i am a woman of letters.

i wake with a fresh gentleness

and i pause in the sunlight to enjoy my lunch.

i gradually make my way across campus to

a single class, where the professor says things like

"what's the dream?" and "your heart and your intellect

must be intimately tied". i let the literature nudge me

into self-reflection as i ponder my worldview, and

i write poetry in the margins.

~mj