We’re Teaching Comp Only

Andrew Wildermuth

Felt like we were running

dry of grass exactly when the

insects arrived when our students arrived

beginning complaining through song and

various media where we were delivering

shared curricula. I now can always arrive

too caffeinated. I also now am crying

in the bathroom and am phoning you, “I

feel a bit but have seen nothing,” and I

wonder exactly what these things could

be carrying of other blood or through me

as we see students cower or just sweat out

into something that for us we can or are

trained just to plainly and calmly call fear

Andrew Wildermuth is a doctoral candidate at the University of Erlangen–Nuremberg. His poems have appeared in Oxford Poetry, Ninth Letter, and Lana Turner. He co-edits The TRIAL: A Journal of Poetry and Politics.
TAGS
Poetry
Originally published:
April 2, 2025

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