I was sitting in class one day,
Precalc, I think it was,
When suddenly my coffee rush,
left me without its buzz.
I knew I could not sleep right then,
lest the teacher think me ill,
so I cursed myself for sleeping late,
and looked up with sheer will.
But as I began to blink and wink,
and my chin began to droop,
I knew I had to do something,
to keep me in the loop.
So I grabbed a pen from in my bag,
and clenched it in my fist,
and stabbed it into my left thigh,
until I gave a hiss.
Still pressing hard, I moved the pen,
scraping from knee to hip,
It dug down sharply through my jeans
and left a burning strip.
The pain worked well and soon I was
awake and listening
to what the teacher had to say
about trigonometry.
Then I looked down and saw a sight
that made me want to cry:
streaks of dark blue, drippy ink
slashed all down my thigh!