Landscape with Tree

To be the worst makes

someone very special.

Imagine the worst crook,

the worst drunk

and the worst enemy.

They’re all special

in their own right.

And the worst            

art history student?

I looked at every painting

like it was a Rorschach test

for hysteria or depression.

Logic kills imagination.

I studied a landscape

with a tree in bafflement.

What did it suggest?

Did I see a face on the trunk?

Did it possess “an owl-filled

branch” from Ginsburg?

The tree stood in a barren

field under a red sun.

It looked withered.

I peered grimly at my book

and hoped to take a different

course for an easy B.

Others thought this course

was simple. Art history

majors sniffed and raised

their legs against my tree.

They weren’t challenged

but I could use some fertilizer.