My students thought
the story difficult to understand
because the writer
used pronouns rather than names
in too many places,
as if the writer’s job
were to placate readers’ expectations
rather than to create
a compelling
experience
an experience that might
include confusion.

My students found
the end of the story to be
unsatisfying
because we don’t know
what will happen
to the mother, to the baby,
except for one girl
who claimed the opposite—
that stories which resolve too neatly
fail to satisfy.