The Third Reader
The third reader on my thesis committee is an albino crocodile. With his white skin and liquid red eyes, Dr. Croc, Ph.D. would make a nice pair of boots or a stylish suitcase for a rich, fat Texan. Instead, he snaps his jaw at the other two committee members. He is bored with their questions: “Who are your literary influences?” “Do all ethnic writers feel alienated?” “Being from a mixed background, do you consider yourself Black?” Dr. Croc snaps his jaw at me for answering too slowly. He has people to see, conferences to attend, books to publish. I ask him for patience; he clamps his jaw around my thesis and swallows it whole. He says that after the pages pass through his body, they will be improved tenfold.
