Recommendation

To whom it may concern, I recommend this student

without reservation. I’ve taught him in three courses.

I know him the way one knows a small seaside town

after window shopping its main street. I’ve seen him

cry once. He handed in a paper on utopias

despite his parents’ protracted divorce.

When I read a perfect transcript, the string of As

also sound like a scream. I often think of the scene

in Alice in Wonderland where the servants paint white roses red

because the queen had ordered red roses for the garden.