moving every year or two
changing towns and schools
was tough enough
why would the teacher
sing the West-Side Story song*
every day for roll?
© 2018 Maria Marshall. All rights reserved.
* “I just met a girl named, Maria….”
Click HERE to read this month's interview with Naomi Shihab Nye. Her DMC challenge is to write a letter to yourself in which you ask some questions that you don't have to answer. (Please keep in mind that your poem does not need to be in standard letter form.)
Post your poem on our September 2018 padlet. While some contributions will be featured as daily ditties this month, all contributions will be included in a wrap-up presentation this Friday, September 28th, and one lucky participant will win a personalized copy of her latest collection of poetry from Greenwillow Books:
Do we ever question more than when we are teens? I love how even though this poem is specific to your experience, Maria, as readers, so many of us can relate to similar challenges faced during that time in our lives.
ReplyDeleteThanks Michelle. Usually, it's kids who tease. But somehow it's tougher, extra humiliating, when it's the adults. They're supposed to protect the kids.
DeleteA haunting memory told in all the words needed. You've shown we don't forget those times long ago. Well done!
ReplyDeleteThank you.
DeleteThis is great! So much known (or at least assumed) about your childhood in so few words! I have memories of teachers like this too (and wonder what annoying things I do to my students that they'll be retelling years from now!).
ReplyDeleteUh oh. Just don't call them out in roll, with song. :-)
DeleteYeah, that I don't do, though I do occasionally call them my little sugar plums and pumpkin muffins, just to hear them groan. :)
DeleteLove love love this! Not the experience, Maria..but how you've captured it and all the emotion in just a few words. Brilliant!
ReplyDeleteMaria, sometimes teachers can be so insensitive. They should know better. Hopefully, they realize it, sooner rather than later.
ReplyDeleteCory
Oh. This is great! I love every spare, perfect word. Thanks so much.
ReplyDelete