A Sonnet for Freshman Year
by Claude Clayton Smith
Dear Lord: You know how hard it is for me
to pray. The classes here are killing all
the things I thought were true. How can it be
that Jews are “chosen people?” Doctor Small:
“Because they wrote the book! It’s simple, see?”
So where are You in all of this? Up or down
or all around? . . . Or nowhere! Chemistry
is worse. The universe came on its own—
spontaneous combustion, soup-like stuff,
then spark and flame and wham bam thank you, m’am.
Next: humans, worst of all. And conscious fluff
we call a mind, to mentor our exam.
“For Tuesday, please read Karl Marx and try
him on for size. Thanksgiving break is nigh.”
Claude Clayton Smith, Professor Emeritus of English at Ohio Northern University, is the author of eight books and co-editor/translator of four others. His own work has been translated into five languages, including Russian and Chinese. He holds a DA from Carnegie-Mellon, an MFA from the Writers' Workshop at the University of Iowa, an MAT from Yale, and a BA from Wesleyan.
