Getting through grading

 Stand up, we advise. Move around.
 Stay light on your mental feet.
  
 I remember a man in a swamp,
 waist-deep, with a rope, saving an impala.
  
 It’s young and terrified, but it trusts him.
 Or maybe it’s in shock, and he’s the last resort.
  
 He knows the swamp: the sticky weight of words
 that suck you down. You have to keep moving
  
 till you find your feet. Don’t worry 
 about how you look. Mud washes off. 
  
 He tugs on one leg, then another, hoists the back
 end onto slightly firmer swamp. Then hauls
  
 with his own life rope. The impala
 permits this indignity and does not kick.
  
 Now it’s on solid ground. He pulls it upright,
 one leg at a time. It blinks and bounds away.
  
 I hope it will return some day, if only
 for a letter of recommendation. The only way
  
 to get through the swampy part of the semester:
 get down in the mud and struggle
 with your students. Share your own rope. 

Yesterday’s prompt was, “Write a how-to.” And my colleague Matt Rossi had posted on Facebook, How do I get through my grading without getting all grumpy? So this.