Disclaimer: This is a parody of one of my favourite poems and I make my apologies to Walter de la Mare!
“Is there anybody there?” said the Teacher
Tapping on the silent screen
And her cursor in the silence moved across
The names of participants in the meeting
And more participants joined the meeting
But the silence still remained
And she clicked upon the screen a second time
“Is there anybody there?” she said
But no one responded to the Teacher
No student behind the muted mics
Unmuted and spoke to her
Where she sat annoyed yet hopeful still
But only a host of silent students
That had logged onto the meeting then
Sat listening or probably not
To the presentation that moved across their screens.
Or they logged on and calmly walked away
to have breakfast, or merely chill
Ignoring the desperate Teacher still
And she felt in her heart their stubbornness,
Their silence answering her call
While her cursor moved across the screen
And her voice continued to rise and fall.
And finally she clicked on the screen
When the forty minutes were done
“That’s it, the class is over” she said
‘The topic is taught but how many understood?”
Never the least sound made the students
Though every word she spoke
Was caught in the recording of that class
That some would later download
She ended the presentation and thanked them for attending
And how quickly the students left the meeting
Before her ‘thank you’ was done!
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