Thirteen Ways of Looking at End of Semester Grading

I bring to you, precious readers, another sad parody of a wonderful poem, suitable for  the end of the semester:

Thirteen Ways of Looking at End of Semester Grading

I

Among twenty stacked bluebooks,   

The only moving thing   

Were the empty pages left unfilled.   

II

I was of weary mind,   

Like a sentence

In which there are three clichés,

But no content.   

III

The thesis floated across the page.   

It was but a small part of the essay.   

IV

A pen and a professor

Are one.   

A pen and a professor and an exam  

Are one.   

V

I do not know which to prefer,   

The beauty of assessment   

Or the beauty of completion,   

Turning in the grades

Or just after.   

VI

Tension filled the long hallway

With desperate requests.   

The footsteps of the students

Crossed it, to and fro.   

The mood   

Traced in flipflops

An indecipherable plea.   

VII

O wise professors of English,   

Why do you imagine published work?   

Do you not see how the essays

Lurk around in stacks

By the coffee mugs surrounding you?   

VIII

I know noble efforts

And lucid, surprising arguments;   

But I know, too,   

That the red pen is involved   

In what I know.   

IX

When the exam paper blew out of the window,   

It marked the end

Of one of many courses.   

X

At the sight of a sad dash

Filling a place meant for a comma,   

Even the teachers of poetry

Would cry out sharply.   

XI

He drove over to campus

In a used Camry.   

Once, a fear pierced him,   

In that he mistook

The bulge in his briefcase

For ungraded exams.   

XII

The registrar is calling.   

The final grades must be overdue.   

XIII

It was evening all afternoon.   

It was raining

And it was going to rain.   

The professor sat   

Still grading.