Gerald, a seventh grader,
right out of a Far Side cartoon,
tells me the restroom door is locked.
The entry ways to the restrooms
don’t have doors, so I say show me.
The door he’s been tugging on,
ten feet away from his objective,
is the janitor’s closet.
Susan, a frail twelve-year-old,
carries a doll with her everywhere.
She suffers from some kind of trauma.
The councilors won’t tell me anything,
because its confidential.
I tell Charlie I missed him last week
when he was absent. Charlie replies
he was in Paris, London, and next week
he is traveling to Hong Kong.
His dad flies private charter jets
and lets Charlie tag along.
Girls smoking in the bathroom
hear someone coming and
ditch their cigarettes in the wastebasket
which catches fire— then the alarm
so loud a deaf person can feel the vibration
and 852 students file out of the building.
A week later, Damon from the Social Learning Center
climbs a large pine, jumps to the roof,
and won’t be talked down.
The hook and ladder truck arrives,
but he’s still adamant. It’s not until
he gets hungry that they can lure him
with sandwiches.
The next day the innocent pine
and four others are toppled,
stumps cut level to the ground.
