Wedged Underneath a Heavy Desk

By Casey Briand

What’s in the student’s notebook

I found abandoned

On the floor?

Math, tensile and thick

Poems analyzed into oblivion

A love letter never sent

The strange English words chosen so

Delicately

Drawings of cells

A prison undetermined

Paper-cut blood

Red droplets, staining the page

Mixing with the ink

The meaning of life

Wrapped up in college rule