31 January 2004 5:48 PM

Out the Looking Window (reprise)

As I look out the window of my English room
Wishing that the day would be over soon.
I see the concrete and the brown sod
That make up this nature — a material quad;
The fiber optics that run through the pipes;
The phones on the poles and the flickering lights.
No sun, nor stars, do I observe;
Just the gray haze of Cleveland that I don’t deserve.
I yearn for white snow, crab grass, and stars,
But here the night’s dark with the smog of those cars.
Eyes to the ground, I walk back through this hell.
Back to my house where I work and I dwell;
To hope my dreams, like a childhood song
Take me back home, to where I belong.

Cleveland, OH
1994

While working on my computer engineering degree at Case (formally known as Case Western Reserve University whose motto actually was “a tradition of excellence even longer than our name”), I was required to take a single English course, technical writing. I think one of the early assignments was to write something, anything. Again, at the time, I probably thought it ironic to write about looking out the window of the classroom. I also probably thought it ironic to write a poem for a technical writing assignment. Regardless, this is the Cleveland version of the “Out the Looking Window” poem. Cleveland has a lot to offer, but it can’t compare to upstate New York for me.

Posted by geoff at January 31, 2004 05:48 PM