Five minutes is all students get to change classes,
stop at their lockers, and use the restrooms.
It’s enough time for me
to take a few swallows of cold coffee,
say hello to a couple of students,
and write a pass for Alicia who is crying
and wants to see her counselor.
Stepping out the door
to do hallway duty,
the math teacher across the hall
is scratching his back on the wall
like a bear rubbing against a tree.
Bill, tall and athletic,
indiscriminately sprays
Axe Body Deodorant
in the air around his locker
as if he’s killing mosquitoes.
With 10 seconds left, I walk back in
and like an actor, I hit my mark.
When the bell stops ringing, I begin,
“Good afternoon, it’s nice to see you.
Enough jibber-jabber!
I need everybody’s eyes and ears up here.”
“Jibber-jabber” gets the intended laugh
and their attention, so we’re off
to a good start.
Mark Thalman is author of Stronger Than the Current, The Peasant Dance, and Catching the Limit. His work has been widely published for five decades. His poems have appeared in the Paterson Review, The MacGuffin, and Pedestal Magazine. Thalman taught English and Creative Writing in the public schools for 35 years.
