A very strange experience in Poetry class on 11/22/63....

[TruthIsAll]

I will never forget this. I still can't figure it out.

There I was, sitting in Poetry class as the professor began his lecture. After about five minutes, the classroom door opened. A black girl, a student in the class, stepped inside. She was in tears. "The President has been shot", she screamed. The class was silent. We were in shock. I prayed that he was just wounded. A collective gasp filled the room.

The girl cried again: "The President has been shot". She waited for a response, to see further reaction, anything, from her classmates. It's like she was begging the professor to let us out. I was in shock, silent. But no one said anything. She turned around, walked out and closed the door.

I expected the class to be adjourned. Then the strangest thing happened, which I will never forget. The teacher, a man who I didn't particularly like, continued the lesson as if nothing happened. I sat there for what seemed like an eternity, wanting to leave, to hear the latest news. But we were not excused from the class. It was as if we were being held hostage. Listening to a lecture of no consequence.

The cold, inhumane poetry lesson continued. Not a word, not a prayer about JFK from the professor. And this was a liberal university.

Finally, the hour was up. I walked out. Little did I know as I stepped out into the crisp November air that the rest of my life, and the lives of billions yet unborn, would be forever changed... for the worse.

I wonder if the Professor remembers where he was that day.

[neuvocat]

1. You should write a poem about that.

Seriously.

[rumguy]

2. Dramatic scene

That sounds like something out of a movie...the tension must have been incredible...

[mitchum]

3. "Vita brevis, Ars longa"

Call me cold and inhumane