Well, Fuck.
I am going fucking crazy. To prove it, I’m posting a poem. My personal code states that my poetry is private unless I: a) wrote it when I was 17 and am no longer accountable for the melodramatic tone, or b) am going fucking nuts. Thus:
I see their minds burn away to ash
Day by day behind the desks
What in the hell am I teaching them?
“Shut up and listen”
“Stay in your seat”
“Stay in your place”
-- That’s what they hear--
And like good children
They do what they’re told.
But then there’s:
“Put it in your own words”
“Put it in your own words”
And suddenly they can’t find their voices
Simultaneous Laryngitis
(a phrase that sounds as much like Latin as anything I’ve tried to teach them)
Their own words are drowned out by 10 million Lil’ Wayne lyrics
The constant blaring of the fire-drill bell
And the rap-culture clichés that have replaced vocabulary.
We are divided by a body of water,
My students and I.
It is vast, hiding the secrets of their pasts
That we’d all rather keep
Below the surface
We are divided by the waters
Of separate cultures, educations,
-- And like good children, we remember that separate is never equal--
Separate Americas.
We are divided by the waters
Of the same tragedy, experienced differently
You see, as a child I had swimming lessons
But every day they’re pushing me under as I approach their shore.
I cannot find the bridge
And I can’t remember why I’d swim across
Without asking them to meet me halfway.
But we are good children,
So we come back together
To give America exactly what she expects
Every day.
I see their minds burn away to ash
Day by day behind the desks
What in the hell am I teaching them?
“Shut up and listen”
“Stay in your seat”
“Stay in your place”
-- That’s what they hear--
And like good children
They do what they’re told.
But then there’s:
“Put it in your own words”
“Put it in your own words”
And suddenly they can’t find their voices
Simultaneous Laryngitis
(a phrase that sounds as much like Latin as anything I’ve tried to teach them)
Their own words are drowned out by 10 million Lil’ Wayne lyrics
The constant blaring of the fire-drill bell
And the rap-culture clichés that have replaced vocabulary.
We are divided by a body of water,
My students and I.
It is vast, hiding the secrets of their pasts
That we’d all rather keep
Below the surface
We are divided by the waters
Of separate cultures, educations,
-- And like good children, we remember that separate is never equal--
Separate Americas.
We are divided by the waters
Of the same tragedy, experienced differently
You see, as a child I had swimming lessons
But every day they’re pushing me under as I approach their shore.
I cannot find the bridge
And I can’t remember why I’d swim across
Without asking them to meet me halfway.
But we are good children,
So we come back together
To give America exactly what she expects
Every day.