"that's beyond the scope of my
project"--watch the philosophy TA's
little mice hands scrabble her glasses

back up her nose when you ask her
questions for which she doesn't have
an answer. make it a game to research

philosophers she probably hasn't studied
just for the satisfaction of her easy
mechanical reaction, her sick little palsied

blink, the "that's beyond the scope of
my project" and then the round glasses--
like Sisyphus' boulder, you watch them

again and again slip back to base and wonder
what kind of masochism it implies that she
hasn't gotten contacts already