Tick, Tick, Tick, Tok

The heartbeat of the clock thrums through skull, 

Down through my bloodstream, 

Tangles with the vesciles and vehicles of the machinery of life, 

Slides through my fingers, 

Lightly shuddering down the bones, 

Sending the pencil in my hand skittering across the page 

Circle, Circle, Cirlce, Dot 

My eyes flicker, 

Attention fluttering away from the paper which can't seem to hold onto it, 

Interest fading and draining away, 

I am left empty 

Even as the bubbles on the page fill with iron-gray graphite 

Number 2 pencil, only Number 2,

Special, standard, boring Number 2

A, B, C, D, E, C, C, C 

Did you know the most common answer

On a multiple choice test... 

Is C?  

Standardized testing, a joke with a shoddy punchline

See, the test designed to standardize us, 

Has only managed to standardize itself 

Math, Reading, Writing, and sometimes Science... 

Is this all school was leading up to?  

All those years of discovery and joy? 

When was learning fun...?

I don't know why we do this anymore

I think I need to go home

And relearn

Why I used to love the call of new knowledge,

Fresh off the press of the mind 

Truth, Interpretation, Creativity, and sometimes Discovery...

I miss you.  

I miss when I used to know you...

Before you were given new faces, new names 

Given the ever-so-repetitive choice 'C' 

Before you and I were...

Standardized.