For Christ's sake

My train of thought while grading, and soon after
"I looked beyond the empty cross/forgetting what my life has cost/and wiped away the crimson stains...."

You know kid, that really doesn't sound like your writing. Forget that it appears to have little to do with the Yousef Komunkakaa poem you've supposedly been inspired by. I wonder what would happen if I Googled just that first line....

Shit. Kid, not only did you rip that "poem" from the lyrics of a song, but you have bad fucking taste. Jars of Clay? Really??

What, you didn't know it was a song? Your parents and your friends helped you with it, but you wrote it yourself? Wait a second, let me print this out. See, that bottom part there. It's the same. Yup, word for word. Oh. So you say you got this in your confirmation class? And you say they didn't tell you it was a song and was written by someone else? You say they just gave this to you, unattributed, as a source of inspiration? That is irony.

Well, plagiarism is still plagiarism, regardless of whether you knew it or not (or how bad the original work was in the first place). I'm sorry, but I have to give you a zero. And now you have a 59 percent in the class. I guess you'd better study hard for the final next week.

Be
Common's latest was one of my favorites from this last year. I'm listening to it again right now. You should be too.