So far,
this year’s not been so great.

In January,
the North Vietnamese came by the thousands
out of the jungles
and into the cities
and attacked our embassy.

In February,
Walter Cronkite went on TV
and told everyone
that what was actually happening in Vietnam
and what our government
was telling us was happening in Vietnam
were two entirely different things.

In March,
at a Tennessee rally for peace and civil rights,
sixty people got hurt,
lots more got arrested,
and one sixteen-year-old boy
was killed.

In April,
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., was murdered
by a hidden assassin
at a hotel in Memphis.
Malcolm’s mom cried for two days straight.
Malcolm stayed locked in his room
and didn’t come out
till after the funeral (they showed it on TV)
was over.

In May,
in Paris, France,
students took to the streets
to protest their government,
and nine million French workers
went on strike.

Soon it will be June,
and as we close the textbooks, take out the lawn mowers
and wicker chairs,
everyone here in Willowbank, New Jersey,
is desperate
for signs of improvement.