On Not Going to the MLA

From Inside Higher Ed: On Not Going to the MLA, by Gina Barreca.

Here's a bit I especially liked:

No longer will I fidget to elaborately elegant arguments
better read than heard;
I won’t argue with an engaging yet unruly emerging scholar
about my flawed, deeply flawed,
impossibly flawed work when he has yet to submit
his first paper for publication, and then pay for his drink
because I know he is struggling.

I no longer hope to meet old lovers while looking gorgeous
because I don’t look gorgeous
and because my old lovers would now be very old.

It ends on an upbeat note, surprisingly. Hard to accept when you've moved on to another phase of life, but there is still work for us there.