for 12 months he wondered
how he would be remembered.
he toiled away hoping
for nice things people might say.

***

now it’s finally all over,
and he reminds himself
to brush his teeth
before going to bed.

brief synposis leading up this aria: peter kang, a college student, is working on his music hum concert report, a six-page paper that is due the next day. he realizes that he has nothing intelligent to say about the opera he saw a week ago. after agonizing for over five hours in front of the computer, he feels compelled to take his own life. therefore, an aria before the act.

PK
Thy keys, computer, blankness tires me,
On thy screen no words exist,
Try I would, but Death invades me;
Death is now a likely choice.
When I am found breathless,
May my teacher say
‘Perhaps six was too much’;
Remember me, but man! forget my grades.

*note: i wrote this while wasting away in my British Lit class on 3/31/04*

I don’t read enough to write well.
I don’t write enough to think well.
I am unreflective.
I spew BS.
I know nothing.