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SCHOOL NOTE

My children play with skulls

for their classrooms are guarded by warlocks

who scream at the walls collapsing

into paper toilets

plump witches mouth ancient curses

in an untaught tongue

test children upon their meaning

assign grades

in a holocaust ranging

from fury down through contempt.

My children play with skulls

at school

they have already learned

to dream of dying

their playgrounds were graveyards

where nightmares of no

stand watch over rented earth

filled with the bones of tomorrow.

My children play with skulls

and remember

for the embattled

there is no place

that cannot be

home

nor is.