The Faculty Lounge

by Jennifer Mathieu

Being longtime veterans, the three were easily able to fill their chart with appropriate, vacuous nonsense that would appease Ms. Harper, even as they joked about darker, unwritten content. It was how they managed to survive such moments.

he loved the unleashing of a fury he did not realize was buried inside him until he heard it revealed in a two-minute song made up of only three chords.

so punk

It did not want to extend to them their full humanity—that was clear. But as long as she didn’t open her mouth, ask for too much, or rock the boat, she could stay. As long as she could agree to exist only in a certain way. Like, half a person.

It wants the worker, not the person. Just as it fought about in the 1800s. Work, the ultimate virtue. Rooted in Puritanism?