Knee-Jerk

You learn that there are Filipinos in Alaska, working at the canneries. (This you read in a work of fiction, whose title you can no longer remember.) You met two bright young things from Alaska when you were a visiting professor at Santa Clara Review. They were so shy, so appreciative, so in awe, you wanted to take them in your arms and surround them with your love. But Santa Clara and you were like oil and water, and when you left, the avuncular chair of the English Department quoted the students as saying your class Literature by Women Writers of Color was a “disaster.”