Career Day

Any questions? I ask,

________________after my brief lesson on how to field-

____________dress a hare with one

slit from neck to hip.

___________________________I’ve draped the slack body

on a wooden drying rack at the front of the classroom

and it is dripping onto the towels

_________________________________I’ve laid beneath.

I brought dark towels, to avoid stains. The children

are quiet.

__________Oh, come on, I say, There is no such thing

as a stupid question,

__________________________just stupid people! Finally

one girl raises her hand.

Can you tell us where the mind ends and the world

begins? __________________Ah! A philosopher, I say,

playfully brandishing the freshly-cleaned blade

_________before I wipe it once more on my corduroys.

Well, I don’t know the answer to your question, but

I’m going to keep talking

________________________________________because I

am a grown-up

________at the front of a classroom. And you, little girl—

What was your name, again?

__________________________________I don’t have one,

she says, I was a wild

____________________hare until just a few minutes ago.

And then she explodes

__________from the room, her white tail

_______________flaring

_______________________above her hindquarters—

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MICHAEL BAZZETT is the author of three collections of poetry, including You Must Remember This (Milkweed Editions, 2014), Our Lands Are Not So Different (Horsethief Books, 2017), and The Interrogation (Milkweed, 2017). His work has appeared in The Sun, The American Poetry Review, Threepenny Review, The Iowa Review, and Ploughshares, and his verse translation of the Mayan creation epic, The Popol Vuh, (Milkweed, 2018) was longlisted for the National Translation Award and named “one of 2018’s ten best books of poetry” by the NY Times. He lives in Minneapolis.