11-27-2021, 04:31 PM
(This post was last modified: 11-28-2021, 01:29 PM by RiverNotch.)
Baptist school: the elderly teacher
gestures to her childhood with a joke
that glides above the Third Graders' heads.
Believing they were balloons, she blew
condoms to sausages stuffed with air
and crossed swords with her brothers.
Where is she now? Below the earth
or, over its surface, ash dispersed,
like her grown-up wards who won't respond
to emails with subject "Reunion"?
Brothers, sisters, and in-betweeners
turned nostalgic, schismatic, demonic---
Recall the pyres of Yu-gi-oh cards,
the hymnals barely bound by tape,
Manila paper prayer requests,
and Beyblade shredders of blintzy skin.
Recall the Holy Spirit's blaze
over the jokers, the bullies, the gays---
Inevitably her makeshift toys would pop
whether she played with them or not.
gestures to her childhood with a joke
that glides above the Third Graders' heads.
Believing they were balloons, she blew
condoms to sausages stuffed with air
and crossed swords with her brothers.
Where is she now? Below the earth
or, over its surface, ash dispersed,
like her grown-up wards who won't respond
to emails with subject "Reunion"?
Brothers, sisters, and in-betweeners
turned nostalgic, schismatic, demonic---
Recall the pyres of Yu-gi-oh cards,
the hymnals barely bound by tape,
Manila paper prayer requests,
and Beyblade shredders of blintzy skin.
Recall the Holy Spirit's blaze
over the jokers, the bullies, the gays---
Inevitably her makeshift toys would pop
whether she played with them or not.