Emily Dickinson Pastiche, Tatum Mueller ’23

Emily Dickinson Pastiche

Oh how sad! To be you — All your Troubles and your Woes — You moan them loudly in the halls And now the whole school knows.

Who at home is telling you? You need to get Straight A’s — Admission through those Ivied gates Relies on perfect grades.

Or do you put this on yourself? Until you are consumed — You are besought — by constant thought — Of school stress self-assumed.

Proll told me not to worry — Not to fuel the College Craze — To spend time doing what I love — That’s the focus — not the grades.

Our head of school — still rather new — He wants us all to cope. He talks about our mental health — He cares — he dares — to hope —

I’m waiting at the T stop — The outbound train thuds by — My earbuds in — I’m listening — The volume cranked up high.

Up First — the podcast’s called — My daily dose of news. Covid rates — Ukraine’s fate — The facts inform my views.

And as I board the inbound train That whisks me toward BU, The podcast whispers in my ears — A world outside of school.