Go to Hell
Charles Rammelkamp

Kleinpoppen strides into class
like a man walking a gangplank,
legs rubbery, stomach fluttering
resigned to there being no way out.

He does this every autumn,
teaches a composition and rhetoric class
offered at a local community college.

Days he works for a software development firm,
a middle management type
surrounded by technicians
like a spy in somebody else's army.

It's an evening class,
only about a dozen students register,
most of them working adults.

But each fall he feels like a fraud
passing out the syllabi,
explaining the curriculum, grading,
cheating penalties and attendance policies.
What can he possibly teach them?

ISBN 1-882983-59-9
38 pages/$6