Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered, weak and weary,
Over what was to be surely forgotten engineering lore,
I found myself quite nearly dozing, so through ECS I went strolling, stumbling, lumbering, kluztly going,
And found myself in front of a door.
“‘Tis a restroom,’ I muttered, “here out on West’s first floor. Simply this and nothing more.”
Ah, distinctly I recall, this was in the early fall. The heat alone could make one bawl in this Texas climate I abhor.
Seeking to cool off my face, I entered into this tiny space hoping a faucet could replace the sweat dripping out my pores.
The light flickered on and I peered out- had I not been here before?
Just what lay beyond this door?
As I stepped inside, my eyes would meet a bench, a wooden slatted seat sitting above gray concrete composing the dirty, cracked floor. The floor had a deep and hefty cleft which my eyes traced to the left, above which a figure’s breath spooked me to my very core.
I gazed back only to find a mirror – the figure was myself, and no one more.
I looked forward once again and saw the bench – just when had it been built? Hidden away from all the rest of the scholars.
To its left stood something light, but given the hour of the night, and given my sorry, poor eyesight, I could not on first glance discern
Exactly what that object was – could it be a shower door?
My eyes focused. I grew more certain that before me hung an curtain
Plastic and off-white: an attribution shared by its tiled floor.
I pushed the flimsy film aside and, much to my surprise, a showerhead met my eyes, water dripping on the floor.
Silence filled the building then, interrupted by a drip but nothing more.
I stood there in the building’s muteness. I do not know how long, the truth is the building’s stench’s awful bruteness (I cannot overemphasize the odor) had led me to the conclusion that I was one of few in my pack of ECS-ers who did not lack basic hygiene and decor.
Yet here I stood, in ECS, face-to-face with a shower.
I said aloud, “It’s rather queer.
I would not suspect a shower here, in the house of engineers who worship Temoc and Tobor.”
Above the tiles, white and cracked, like a tooth covered in plaque,
The showerhead retorted back with water that began to pour.
I watched it through the full six feet as a drop fell to the floor.
“Tell me then, you showerhead –
Mech, computer, biomed,
Software, electrical – have any led themselves to walking through these doors?
The showerhead, as if to think, paused a moment, then shortly ceased its dripping, nothing more released and no more water fell to the floor.
I waited for a minute still, but the water dripped no more.
I thought through the past and reckoned
That surely, for at least a second
There would have been one student beckoned at a hackathon of yore.
Beckoned to venture inside and, if they had some sense of pride, took their hygiene in stride and ventured through the shower’s door.
I thought back to that night’s odor
And at once became less sure.
I sat down on the bench of wood.
Across from me, the showerhead stood
Small and hunched over, as one would if they too had been ignored.
The pressure built up with a whine
The showerhead let out a soft sigh
And slowly, daintily began to cry, tears dripping upon the floor.
It feared that I’d soon forget it, with its hope dashed as before.
I softly croaked back, “Nevermore.”
Then, methought, the atmosphere lightened. To admit, I was first frightened but the odor appeared to take flight and left nothing making the nose sore.
It was as if something from on high – some constellation, comet in the sky – blessed this engineering versailles in the home of Temoc and Tobor.
Higher power or fever dream aside, for a second, the odor was no more.
Basking in the moment’s trance,
I left and outside went to prance
Contemplating how small of I chance
I’d had to find this elusive shower.
And, to the best of my knowledge
Still in the engineering college
Westmost building, westmost wall’s edge
sits the restroom of this lore.
As it has stood since 2019 (some ancient year of yore) – it shall stand there evermore!
