On the court
   she is a calculator
      Texas Instruments tattooed on her shoulder
On the court
   she is a fire chief
      Barking orders like a high strung dalmatian
On the court
   she is Agent J
      Picking physics-loving Tiffany out from the monster crew

But here
   she is waist-deep
      in the muck of academia
   slogging ever more slowly
through the murk
   toward the crisp vellum
      of someone else's
   wanting to know
through the mire
   toward the cubicle prison
      of taking orders
   from bosses or
for burgers

On the court
   she is a calculator
      Texas Instruments tattooed on her shoulder
In her mind
   she climbs the walls
      of the slime-sided well
On her terms
   she lifts her face to a sunlight
      that is hers alone.