they settle and arrange themselves;
second thoughts
displace their first

they are lost in the right place

they surrender, stunned, to destiny,
publicly on their own

the announcements are made
in the impassive but impressive voice
-set speech unwinds in an official mouth
no longer mine;
incontrovertible play back, law

fluorescence reflects off each brain stem,
resonates
-objective correlative to the white noise within,
a visible sound longing to be a buzz
but refraining

faces are wrung like wet rags:
intimations of old age
-three hour proleptic palimpsests

their concentration on display is unseemly
unaware, they mime the effort to recall
fingers find the right word in unlikely places
-in an ear, a nostril, an armpit, a lock of hair, a crotch

heads are held firmly in place
or bolted on hand-tight

one student sucks her pen
for the sweetness of an inspiration

another pleads with the muse of finals
for a matter of fact

one is wild with worry
she actually casts for an idea, reels it in
-then protests, objects,
wards off the wrong answer,
red herring

she welcomes another insight warmly,
grandmotherly,
and unwinds the yarn of an idea

suddenly, emphatically, with theatrical flourishes,
scrolling hands
up and down the imaginary page before her
she asks the air to explain itself, elaborate itself

she has forgotten about her pen

a fourth suspiciously holds out her hands
like Lady Macbeth at the manicurist
and discovers cobwebs between her fingers

their tension is released like effluent
and lodges in my kidneys, lungs, synapses
-toxic, irreducible

for I am the only one idle
excluded, untested and untried