Junior scholar

Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of
         the least of these, you did for me.

                                                        —Matt. 25:40–45

The assistant professor suspends his reading
of a hyper-theoretical screed. He stares, off-handed,
at the trash-strewn alley below. An undignified view.
It’s among the galling wages, he knows,
of his modest station, but he trusts in this volume and others like it: