“Geometric Optics” by Natasha Hochlowski

The oscillations of your voice reach my ear,
entering the interface between my body and the outside world
with too high a frequency.
Pencil scratches paper
as I wait for a
sine
that this class is over.
You go off on another
tangent.
The sunlight reflects from your glasses,
angling around the room in high-intensity illumination.
You narrow your eyes, sending incident beams of irritation
that propagate in my direction.
I smile and answer the question on the board,
diffusing your glare,
while praying that what we learned today
won’t be on tomorrow’s exam.