The Best Poem Ever Written

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Glossy eyes stared up at me from the pages of a magazine

they followed me around the room

watching as I took the glass from the cupboard

I felt them roll behind me as I poured the wine

turned on the gas

and touched the tip of a match

to the stack of term papers I hadn't graded yet

their fate fulfilled by fire

their substance thickened by flame

I will never know the significance of vernacular in

To Kill a Mockingbird

as seen through the mind of the

uninspired

bored

hormonal

teen desperately trying to meet the 1000 word limit

Or the nature of Huck Finn's relationship with

N-Word Jim

as seen through the mind of the

young

nubile

second row

third period

American lit student

whose eyes continued to stare up at me from

the glossy pages of a magazine.

Michael N Daniel

a.k.a. Nick and David