Below is my poem attempt from the prompt by Joshua Gray for day three of the Poem-a-Day, write a poem that scares you. I had a little trouble with this one.
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| Photo by Tory Byrne |
Scary thing was the teacher
wore a tight bun every day and had
the class chomp octopus, charged one
girl with planting tacks on her chair
while the guilty party snickered
in the back of the room.
Scary thing was the flowery fragrance
she doused herself with before entering
room and rules of foreign language,
scary she held a stick in her hand
and wasn’t afraid to use it
on hands of the half-grown.
Scariest of all was when pupils
were freed from her clutches
at the end of the year, not one
could recall what they had been
taught, scary teacher’s ways forever
imprinted in their heads instead.
I'd call that scary--not recalling what was taught scholastically but recalling what was internally taught. Sounds like mind games.
ReplyDeletePowerful piece, Linda. I had a real sensory reaction to it.
ReplyDeleteChomp octopus(?) Tako poke is a common snake here in Hawaii but I would be scared of it as I am the rest of your description. My first grade teacher felt like that to me.
ReplyDeleteSnack not snake...guess it goes with tako (octopus) but more likely unagi (eel)
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