Sitting in my seat; doing so alone.

They say smile, be kind, and make new friends.

Tell me, admin, how easy that was for you.

Tell me, teacher, how to smile in a room of strangers.

Tell me, society, how to make friends of these people.

How, in this city of new, do I fit in with the accustomed?

 

The teachers say, “Write what you want to say and

Use your imagination” with smiles plastered - Painted -

On their plastic faces, evil red pens in hand.

Just waiting for me to stray from their path of ‘Correctness’.

Their robots churn out essays of Right, uniform - to say

In my most updated vocabulary- and utterly dry.

 

History is in the past. Crisp – factual – True –

Bloody – exciting – Right – never letting the pool—

full of dreams-- create; only stuff with facts.

Choking and filling the plane it rests and –

Unknown to the fisher of Ideas – pretty empty.

Facts overpopulate the current space of Mind.

 

Where is the fun – Play—Happiness – of our youth?

What has become of the whooping and sweating and—

Dare I say?—pure joy of being able to play?

Stuffed inside our tiny office; glued to our computers—Stress

thrives—never leaving the screen. Filling our minds and – yes—

Our bellies – hoping to fill a void in our bodies. Boredom.

  

“This generation won’t outlive the past one.”

“Our children are obese.” “Sixty minutes a day!”

“Exercise helps students grades increase!”

Listen to yourselves. Gym – every – other—DAY?  

Never should it be! Our generation needs to

Stray from “ACADEMICS!” and fall into “PLAY TIME!”

 

What am I saying to our teachers? Listen here;

Let the children do what children do—play.