All the signs say “TURN AROUND”

Still I stride forward

I pass the things they warned me of

Like the walking dead

Elongated sheets marked up in red

Stapled to their heads

Their test scores carved into their arms

The papers cover their eyes

Not only dead

But blind

Still they move like their alive

 

The farther I go

The darker it gets

The more concentrated too

Heads are off in books

Students jailed by backpack hooks

Essays upon essays suffocating them all

Leads to another hall

 

Walls are chalkboards

Covered in endless math

It’s a never ending

Continuing path

The dead have pulled their papers up

To look at their life's work

They stand back and gock 

Their miniscule errors

Kill them with shock

 

The hall opens up

After miles of lives

A sea gapes down

In I dive 

Trying to escape the frowns

The waters glassy

In it reflects me

I have red on my face

And numbers on my arms

I should have listened to the signs

I have now lost my mind