Citizenship

When I learned that I got into college

I decided to purposefully flunk a class

Mostly because

They handed it off to a teacher in training

And I hate chemistry

It uses logic that is

Utterly ridiculously hard and retarded

So they asked me to explain

What a buckminsterfullerine

Buckyball was

And I said

It was what you threw home

To get Buckminsterfullerine

Out.

They asked

To explain the chemical formula

For an explosive reaction

And I said

A yuppie wife and an assertive man

And they said

To describe the chemical interaction

Between two hydrogen atoms

And one oxygen atom

And I wrote

HELP! I’m CHOKING!

He pulled me aside and said

I know you can do better than this, son

I pulled him aside and said

I know you can do better than this, son

But I’m doing mine on purpose

After that he threw the book at me

Molecules and all

And I walked out into the summer

Laughing