Because the world is
confusing and ugly
6.7.8.9.
they/ we shut down
in the face of all
that noise and smoke
10.10.10.
to teach the reading
and writing of it
"your world, our world, is
a beautiful place full
of stories"
We say in our crowded, dusty rooms
with too much gray
and not enough air
"your life is a movie,
and you are the star..."
We drag and grasp
the weight of it
the light into darkness
the cool wind into a jungle
a place to rise above
the killing floor
"..give your words power, because
naming a thing is to control
a thing , to kill it , create it, cast it
aside,
to give it glorious feathers
and watch it fly"
Pointless, a bell rings and
they depart in a cloud of smells and slang.
I scavenge pencils off the floor, among the loose papers
scrawled with pictures
of dicks and "f*&k u"
there are origami cranes,
unicorns,
and the seedlings
of poems.
