It was 3:00 AM in early UVA spring 1977
Me slumped in a straight back dorm desk chair
Beginning again after a short hot pot break
Hazily typing a nearly due
“Compare and contrast” anthropology paper
I finish a line
I hit return
My IBM electric’s platen zooms high-speed right
Slamming into my recently filled Boynton mug
(Bears-cheerfully-holding-colorful-balloons)
Launching bears into flight across the quiet dorm lounge
Shooting an International Coffee Suisse Mocha spray
Ceiling high and room wide as my favorite
Mug crashes into a hundred sharp shards
Sigh
My college career in a single early hour vignette
mannersworld 