Dream of the Biology Speech

11 May 1988

Photo by Felicia Buitenwerf on Unsplash

Spring break is over
and everyone has to give
a speech in Biology.

I wrote mine some time ago
but misplaced it
so when I am called on

I wing it. The class period
ends before I am finished.
The next day the professor

says to the class, "Now is 
your chance to volunteer
and get it over with."

(For the longest time
the room has been silent
and even after he says this

still no one speaks.)
"Perhaps I should go," I say,
"Since I left off yesterday

and maybe my speech
is still fresh in everyone's mind."
I cringe at how badly I said that

but then think, well,
it wasn't that bad,
it could've been worse.

The professor appears to be
slightly professorially offended.
"Either that or you should wait

till the very end," he says
as if it is self-evident
I should wait

till the very end.
"But, as no one has volunteered ...."
So I begin my speech.

Or begin to begin.
I stand up and face the class,
but I can't for the life of me

remember where I left off
yesterday or even what
I was talking about.

"Well ..." I say,
thinking hard. "Hmm ...."
Then, finally: "I can't

seem to remember
where I left off.
Did anyone take notes?"

There occurs a general
thumbing through 
notebook pages and

shaking of heads. 
They don't have any better
clue than I.

One girl, however, 
a smarty-pants type,
pipes up and eagerly reads

a sentence which I recognize
to be not from my own speech
(the content of which

continues to elude me)
but from the professor's
closing comments yesterday.

The professor,
sitting nearby, shows me
a xeroxed sheet

with the sentence just
recited by my classmate.
She got one of the words wrong.

Armed with that
superior knowledge,
but still unable to recall 

anything about my speech,
I launch into it, thinking
I will use anything I can recall

from The Neck of the Giraffe.
I repeat the sentence,
using the correct word,

having no clue
as to its meaning, adding
something like,

"... as so-and-so just
quoted from Professor ... 
Professor ..."

(but I can't remember
the professor's name)
"... the professor's comments

of yesterday."
Then I begin to talk
about the New Biology

and about how efforts
to come up with a new 
evolutionary theory

have taken on a rather
pseudo-scientific or even
religious quality.

Another professor
has stood up, enthusiastic
about my message

but wanting me
to get on with it,
and added his two cents.

Suddenly the classroom
is outside.
A road

passes the back
of what would have been
the room.

I have to raise my voice
as noisy cars drive by.
Several men jog by,

some carrying 
newspapers
or rolled up magazines.

They seem to exemplify 
some point I'm making.
Class ends.

I have taken up 
the whole period
and didn't even

get in a conclusion.
But I can't help feeling
it was a success.