Olney High School West - Selections

Every few days I get the urge to write a poem while in my class. Here are a few. I've left them unedited.

10-21-09

back in worlds where torn hearts hit the wayside
filleted open under a cover, one or another.
Respect comes in breathing forms.
Who can breathe the loudest breath
before the time is up and away?

*

Students who don’t stare at paper
stare at the walls
which keep everything in.

Benchmark Testing Today

The real tests begin before the class begins.
Say things five times too fast for security.
Five star hotel. Security taskforce with stun guns.
I will dance with you along disinfected halls.
The bellhop will be our third person choreographed.
His cemeteries dream the cries of the dead.
Office labyrinths keep everyone lost.
I had a dream of limbs failing.
The final frontier spared; free of fear.
You wait by the building that drips into the background.
I’ve got whips in a chest somewhere.

It was like a horde of ants covering linoleum seascape

attendance. ms. G’s
students came to class
because they could
get minimal points
for it.
but there’s no
reason to do
work. and they
won’t get kicked out
for doing
nothing: even
distraction.