They said they wanted to study me,

And I smiled with pride,

And got myself ready in my best tweed

And heels and steeled myself

For how I might defend

A dissertation, if I’d ever written one,

But maybe someone liked my poetry there?

But at the university,

The shuttled me off

To the Zoology Department,

Where I was asked to strip down.

I looked around to make sure

I didn’t see any knives.

It wasn’t my poetry they wanted to dissect,

But guess again,

The story of my life?

-jenn