The Latin Professor lives in the country

drives a little red pickup,

fills its box with grass seed,

Omalene for his horses,

the Georgics of Virgil.

The philosophy professor drives

a big black pickup. He carries

Heidegger, Sartre, Derrida and Foucalt.

He needs wide tires, eight cylinders.

The German professor rides his bike,

his saddlebags stuffed with umlauts,

agglutinative affixes of Deutsch.

The crazy old poet comes on shanks mare,

her knapsack bulges with words.

Soft: lily petal, silk shirt, down pillow.

Hard: arrow, knife, ax.