Vol. V, Issue 2: Summer 2007
Lecture Hall
by Grécia Alvarez

About the time one breaks the morning’s fast
The diligent pupils, with their eyes wide open,
Congregate in the lecture hall to take in their lesson.

I, snide as I am, in an act of utmost rebellion,
Snuck in an orange, plucked from its verdant host
To make my ambrosial daybreak repast.

As Valencia smells mingle with talk of valence shells,
The learned men pour forth their love in lecture-form;
To common folk, a most pedantic scene, but
To the eager students, a sign of utter affection.

The sound of pages fluttering close by
As I sit and marvel, wake me, & my impatient ideas
Like Dante’s divine birds, quickly take flight.

At all this, I cannot help but think that if
The bespectacled Oxford boys of Yore,
With their book-straps and neat bow-ties,
Could see us now, by golly, we’d make them proud!

DI