A Professor's Week / Weak

narrative structure

mise-en-abîme; a new term

stories in stories

energy draining anger inducing, naught but

plagiarism here

essays and essays

glimpses into students' minds

jumbled nothingness

possible to care

too much? when I cry in class

and they don't react

stretch dough till see-through

carefully roll into log

burned out, stretched too thin

tick tick tick tick

I wait in studio for

students who never come (total of 17 syllables)

student: look over?

prof: what in particular?

just in general

we're here to instruct -

not to edit or assess.

oh, never mind then

picture flickers green

swaying movement dizzying

seasick 'net teaching

sun pushes out of

darkened cradle, at work, still

too early for light

These haiku are part of the October 2019 Haiku Challenge, which I completed in early November. This series is about my encounters as a professor at a local college. October is generally a depressing month for me as students in my Composition I class start to learn what plagiarism is and as my workload increases. Most of my writing during this month is depressing.

The seventh and eighth haiku in this series are meant to be one poem. Sometimes 17 syllables is not enough and I need another 17 to complete the poem.