Pretty plumage on display,

But for a real bird, I dismay.

Learning abstractions after lunch

I have a disquieting hunch

That listening to

Your words, as I intently do,

On literary theory summaries

Is like watching caged canaries—

Beautiful colors adorn

Birds, though once free-born,

Sit in their barred cages,

Singing idle tunes, watching ages

Pass by. Maybe we

The caged canaries be,

Instead, as we sit and parrot

Senseless analytic rot

To the riotous humor

Of the informed observer.

A canary classroom, parroting

Canary theories and rotting

Our brains and souls through

Every day we listen to you.