The Miracle
The craziest of the crazies who came
To the learning lab had to take a test
For her freshman English class to prove
Competency. She had negotiated
All the way to the school president
And been granted unlimited time for
The fifty-minute event which for her
Meant ask to stay through the entire night.
And every moment she would be hoping
For a reason to sue us. We referred
To this student as she whose name cannot
Be said because if you spoke of her, she
Would miraculously appear after an
Absence of a year or more, like the time
She asked me to help her write her story
As she had become convinced her memoir
Would be a bestseller—she had this tale
About driving her car down the road when
She was very hungry, pulling up to
A stoplight and seeing a loaf of bread
Lying beside her car—that was as far
As she could get, could draw no conclusions,
Had no idea what it meant except that
The Lord will provide. When she came to take
Her test, she started that same old story.
Maybe she would finish it as after
All, she had till the end of time, rapture
Or apocalypse, to finish the thing.
I checked on her once, by herself in the lab
As the other students did not wish to
Be near or even far as she emitted
The crazy funk of her forty or so
Years. An hour and a half in, she called
An ambulance and fainted when it drove
Up behind the building. She refused to
Leave in it and we refused to allow
Her to resume the test since her bounty
Of time did not include an ambulance
Break. I looked at her paper once she had
Left. “I was driving my car one cold day.
I was very hungry, but when I stopped
At a stoplight, I saw a loaf of bread.”
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