Linear Mind Lamentation & Glory

The problems were prefaced that day

George missed it all.

You see, he overslept

The poor lad was running, again, terribly late.

Needless to say, by the time he got there —

It was all over, but

There on the blackboard,

In a smudged white chalk, beaconed a glimmer of hope

Surely, this must be a sign of the assigned problems!

In longhand, he carefully copied —

The two problems, and

Skedaddled home

Little did he know.

Without procrastination

In this and that, and

round and round, and

upside down, and

downside up

way,

George completely devoted himself

Night and day to

Solving the two little problems.

No way! — This is hard!

He’d yelp!

Still,

Painstakingly,

Wholeheartedly,

He kept deriving, while bracing for an F

There were thoughts of resigning, yet

In pain and agony

With every last micro morsel of grit,

Tired as he was, he kept doodling at it.

Just as he was about to give up,

Just as another day was about to dawn, and

Daylight about to cap another restless, sleepless night,

The solution dawned upon him.

What the…?

Oh, well, I’ll submit what I’ve got

It strangely looks like it could be right

I’m out of time

Anyway.

And so George submitted his toil only to, six weeks later,

Be summoned, and

With great bravado by his professor,

Informed — I wrote an introduction to your paper!

A paper? What paper?

Lad — you solved for the wrong problems!

I’m so sorry. Did I fail? — sheepishly, George explained how he was running late and missed the lecture that day.

Son — the professor said — You solved what was deemed unsolvable!

For that, you get an A!