a lot of the teachers wore green today
some really went all out
but the students didn’t seem to notice
there wasn’t a fuss
the only one I talked to
told me about her housing complex
which she loves, where she feels safe
and how she has only ever been
in one fight, in 7th grade
(she got her nails done after)
except maybe also that
one time when she was 13
there was a disagreement
over clothes lines and laundry
and she punched a girl who
came at her neck on the stairs
the girl was 30
and actually her next door neighbor
who already had fading black eye
from her boyfriend
who hit her
when the cops came she
tried to blame the bruises
on the student and her mom
that girl was crazy though, said my student
why did she stay with that guy?
I finally caught up with my blog reader, and thus with your poems, and this is my favorite one so far. I really like it, thanks for writing and posting it!