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
So 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 here in the classroom   they probably
want to spell garden again   they want
to examine his hand