on reading student essays

there's a new reality behind each page
the world with a sour twist not fated
the end results a not-so-silent rage
a sudden moment now unintegrated
no simple blindness can account for this
such tone-deaf answers as implode the mind
the stultifying horrid mental hiss
the failure to comprehend plain humankind
what matters now is simply that i plod
through this high pile without a single scream
the absence here of vivifying rod
to separate the waking from the dream
what matters that i dreamed and hoped and taught
if in these minds so little has been caught