History Class, 1958

 skeletal fingers wrapped

         tightly in a two-hand-knot

the bowed spine responded to

       the direction of her eyes shielded

by large spectacles

as this titanium-willed

       instructor asked for the

terms of the Treaty of Utrecht

      from the class of students

withering under even the prospect

       of having to stand and answer

complete with comma’s and paragraphs

        from the hour of memorizing “homework”

and when the most innocent and naïve among us

            asked the forbidden question,

              “What is the significance and meaning of this?”

We all heard, “We have no time for such speculation;

         we have to prepare for the examination!”