Presentations

Face flushed

Hands warm and clammy

The voice that comes from my throat

Is commanding

I speak with confidence

Though my body language betrays me

I shake but stand still

I’m fine but I freeze

A student’s nightmare

my group is short

So I speak

Us, the clock will not thwart

I pontificate and preach

Pulling out every fact I know

The passion fires up inside

And the heat in my my cheeks is not nerves or a show

I am warm with anger

And confident in my cool head

We have met the time

Because I what I’ve said

There are tears in my professor’s eye

Her notes of red ink

Stopped flowing minutes ago

And I think:

If this is my influence when trying to beat the clock

What can’t I do when I decide to talk?

Author's Note

wrote this after finishing my final presentation in my history class