My son enters the classroom
There are thirty-two children waiting for him
He dreams that he will teach them to read
His head is full of the letters that words are looking for
Because of his nature
his fingers are flowers
Here is a rose he says look it grew right
into the letter R
They like that idea very much they lean forward
He says now spell garden
They write it correctly in their notebooks maybe
because the word rose is in it
My son is happy
Now spell sky
For this simple word the children
turn their eyes down and away doesn’t he know
the city has been quarreling with the sky all of their lives
Well, he says spell home he’s a little frightened
to ask this of them What?
They laugh they can’t hear him say
What’s so funny? they jump
up out of their seats laughing
My son says hopefully it’s three o’clock
but they don’t want to leave where will they go?
they want to stay right in the classroom they probably
want to spell garden again they want
to examine his hand