A Mollusc Poem and a Worthwhile Cautionary Epigraph

Notes (for a lecture)

'Academic humour is to humour what military intelligence is to intelligence' 

- David Bordwell

You are just a mole

Bumbling in the twilight

Of distraction.

And then, from the burrow,

That cozy darkened exile,

You are placed before a crowd.

Spectators bristle with attentive

Pads and pens for notes;

They want your worms.

You are asked to bring

The new worms forward,

From the soil of your search.

They want reasons, argument

And justification for the nature

Of your feeding habit.

What value does this have?

This jewel, this acorn,

This worm of yours?

You were only ever eating

Worms, face down in the dirt.

It was fun.

Now they are baying

For an answer:

Present yon grubby palms.