Maupassant was right

She sees
          The smoking sea stretched to infinity
                    Children sinking at the horizon
                    pulled down by sharks or the sun
                    -- fish are drowning too
          The imperfections in a razor blade
          The hierarchy of beauty
          An albatross diving in the dying day´s light
It's Icarus flailing
The sun explodes
Opposing legions of fire in her eyes, doing battle
The world is ending
I dive in
She will only see the water broken once

The Cage

They said it was odd. Why would a man walk slowly into a pond, filled with lily pads, frogs and leeches- only to resurface 5 minutes later, completely covered in pond scum? Alive and well. I asked him why he chose this route and why he left the comfort of his life. He looked slowly my way, as if in a daze, his sunken eyes pleading for understanding. It was only then that I saw the blood pooling under is feet coming from a deep cut in his wrist, and I understood. So I took him by the hand and led him to the top of the hill and tied him to the tree. There I left him unaided with the pool of blood quickly building up and running down, back towards the pond. Now, in this small room, I can think of nothing else.

A little truth?

Abstract is good but there are also facts that one can mention. For example, a fact would be that a student was murdered at the university we are teaching at (drinking+ money = murder). Another would be that a student has recently committed suicide (apparently this young man jumped twice- the first was from three stories, the second from five). Again, with the same topic (but combining the two sentences), another extremely intoxicated student was running around in a tall building trying to escape from his friend who was chasing him... well, true to form, this young man jumped out of an open window, hoping to land on the balcony- but to his (we're assuming) astonishment, there was no balcony and alas fell to his death.

Our students (whose English names are full of symbols- Flying, Lemon, Eagle, Seven, Fish, Happy, and the list goes on) are full of interesting questions to ask (we are, as it is, all- knowing b/c we are white and are teachers... apparently) such as, "Do I have a sock fetish?" and "Am I bisexual?" and "Why do American women have bigger breasts than us?" and "I have a black foreign boyfriend- I'm terrified of him but I love him. What should I do?". Such are the questions and although we are not qualified to answer these or give advice- we do the best we can, knowing that we are affecting the future of students who are incredibly naive although they are in their 20s.

Now about our fellow teachers. We have been blessed with a psychotic madman from Denmark, called Dimon (changed names to protect identity). Dimon arrived 3 weeks ago and will probably kill us in our sleep. He is the strangest bloke we have met in a long time. Not only does he never smile, but he also insults everyone around him. In his classes he openly calls his students cheats and liars (apparently he took more than one girl home with him, who ultimately stole all his money) and has no idea of how to behave socially (this is an obvious point). He provides us with entertainment by yelling at people in the hallway and by asking the same questions over and over again. We can find him, once in awhile, standing just outside his door, not quite sure why he is there.

He is the most entertaining of all teachers, and so I will graciously leave the others alone.

With this being done, enjoy the "facts" for they are the truth and the truth is relative. So maybe the fight to find "facts" is impossible and we should all admit that our "facts" and "thoughts" are abstract.