Biology Class
By Lisa Rodriguez •
Heavily accented professors
with unpronounceable names
that never smile
give multiple choices
to those with no choice
and stalk up and down the aisle.
Pickled pigs in formaldehyde
named "Arbie" by students with knives
as they cut and probe
the anterior lobe
to see how a pig survives.
Jars of death preserved
in see-through caskets on the shelves,
looking through microscopes
and tweezing the pieces apart,
they learn about themselves.
A bucket marked
in professorized letters
"animal parts discarded here"
collects the scraps
of scholastic cannibals
eating away at their sophomore year.
by Lisa (Teel) Rodriguez
1987