Basic Needs

How impossibly difficult it must be

To focus your attention on a dragging lecture

Squinting at microscopic textbook print

Pretending not to be hopelessly distracted

By the pangs of hunger that reverberate inside you

How incredibly taxing it must be

To be expected to survive an entire day of learning

A whole six hours

Lacking energy, lacking interest

In all but your next meal

Understand

That when basic needs come nagging at your sleeve

They establish a plaguing residency

In every cavity of your brain

At that point

There are far more important things

Than the history of Europe

And logarithms