– tuition was reduced by the students performing the domestic chores
I’ll swab the mouths of toilets
to learn Latin conjugates;
I’ll dab dust from every surface
to learn trigonometry, physics.
Teach me more than piano, sewing,
to not raise my voice
above a murmur,
to not contradict my elders,
to not look a man
straight in the eye.
I will give what I have always given—
clean windows, clean floors,
straight, even stitches.
And for it, this time, you will
set Prometheus’ fire
in the kindling of my mind,
and there is no putting out
that hungry blaze.
Photo of a sculpture of Prometheus at The University of Minho Gualtar Campus, used under CC.
