He made a line on the blackboard, <br />one bold stroke from right to left <br />diagonally downward and stood back <br />to ask, looking as always at no one <br />in particular, "What have I done?" <br />From the back of the room Freddie <br />shouted, "You've broken a piece <br />of chalk." M. Degas did not smile. <br />"What have I done?" he repeated. <br />The most intellectual students <br />looked down to study their desks <br />except for Gertrude Bimmler, who raised <br />her hand before she spoke. "M. Degas, <br />you have created the hypotenuse <br />of an isosceles triangle." Degas mused. <br />Everyone knew that Gertrude could not <br />be incorrect. "It is possible," <br />Louis Warshowsky added precisely, <br />"that you have begun to represent <br />the roof of a barn." I remember <br />that it was exactly twenty minutes <br />past eleven, and I thought at worst <br />this would go on another forty <br />minutes. It was early April, <br />the snow had all but melted on <br />the playgrounds, the elms and maples <br />bordering the cracked walks shivered <br />in the new winds, and I believed <br />that before I knew it I'd be <br />swaggering to the candy store <br />for a Milky Way. M. Degas <br />pursed his lips, and the room <br />stilled until the long hand <br />of the clock moved to twenty one <br />as though in complicity with Gertrude, <br />who added confidently, "You've begun <br />to separate the dark from the dark." <br />I looked back for help, but now <br />the trees bucked and quaked, and I <br />knew this could go on forever.<br /><br />Philip Levine<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/m-degas-teaches-art-amp-science-at-durfee-interm/
