“Chemistry Lesson” [by Edward Hirsch]

                                                                                          (Chicago, 1966)

                                               “There’s a simple formula

                                               for getting along here:

                                               don’t call me Moon-head,

                                               don’t try to fuck

                                               the girls on the floor,

                                               and don’t break the beakers

                                               or the Bunsen burners

                                               when you slip them

                                               into boxes.  Don’t drop

                                               the Petri dishes

                                               or the porcelain crucibles

                                               when you stack them

                                               onto pallets

                                               and don’t crash the forklift

                                               when you carry shit

                                               through the aisles

                                               to the loading dock

                                               at the back of the warehouse.

                                               One of the truckers

                                               will take you with him

                                               to unload

                                               on those palaces

                                               of higher education

                                               where a bunch of assholes

                                               wearing lab coats

                                               will botch the experiments

                                               and blame the textbooks,

                                               which we also supply. 

                                               If you come back tomorrow

                                               I’ll walk you over

                                               to the plant

                                               where we house chemicals,

                                               but try not to breathe.” 

"Chemistry Lesson" is from Stranger by Night (Knopf, 2020), the compelling new collection from Edward Hirsch, the guest editor of The Best American Poetry 2016. "Chemistry Lesson" was first published in Five Points.