My professor scribbles the word "physics" on the chalkboard
but it's in cursive and looks
more like physcs
because s and c are not bridged, the loop broken
like snapped string. Instead, the dot of the i
is tossed like a ball from s to c, like the exchange of knowledge.

Don’t skip class, he says. Don’t
miss the opportunity
to translate words into equations and free-body diagrams along the margins of your paper. Let them spiral into integrals and derivatives and staircases
of logic and calculations, breathe a little chalk dust and let it
rattle in your lungs
like the pent-up dreams in your fingertips.