The Most Bizarre College Essay Question

In an application to Oklahoma State University, which I filled out this weekend, I was asked to create a poem, consisting of 250 words or less, that included the words clock, Wild West, bicycle, and duct tape. Could this prompt be any stranger? This is what I concocted:

A clock measures time on the width of its face,

The face of the earth’s a miraculous place,

If the clocks are turned back to long, long ago, 

We could witness a wonder, a Wild West Show.

Cowboys and natives would parade on their steeds,

Performing many an incredible deed.

But we could turn time further back, if you like,

To pedal the first “dandy horse,” called a bike.

Riding with Parisians, under the Eiffel,

Bicycles and Frenchmen would hail your arrival.

But crossing the Pont Neuf, right over the Seine,

You would think of another bridge, in Brooklyn.

Up to1902, we would then travel,

To see the Brooklyn Bridge, raised from the gravel.

We would ascend its height, if we are able,

And notice duct tape, rapped ‘round every cable.

Seeing the binding would remind us of home,

Where tape fixes all, from broke glasses to combs.

We would turn time forward, to twenty-thirteen,

And embrace our own place, despite all that we’d seen.

(If you’re wondering if this poem is true,

historically accurate, with nothing skewed,

my answer is yes, and each stanza is fact,

based on true events, and perfectly exact.)