CW – References to enslavement and the Underground Railroad


Before we role-play enslaved people, I'm assigned to the group that dissects a sheep's eye. I study the eyeball. The tapetum reflects light back, the formaldehyde kills bacteria, the sclera holds it together. I hold the eye and ignore the voices of the teachers that grow louder: You did not ask permission to be here. I am the sheriff, and I have a whip and a rifle. You pretend to be locked away. You pretend they heard you. Now you hide in a cabin. I threaten to shoot you. Stay quiet. I clutch the eye and look for the optic nerve, but it isn't there. Congratulations! You have survived the Underground Railroad! I look at the vitreous humor, but the tiny classroom seems to shiver. I do not know if the Underground Railroad simulation is happening now. I don't know how to pretend that I feel the cold like the enslaved people felt it, how to pretend that I understand centuries of pain. I only recall being the last to leave Nature's Classroom, the crush with the plum shirt, thinking, I wish we could walk on the stars.