Teachers

 

 

those still living invited to that 45th reunion

but of the five attended didn’t take from any

one couldn’t make it with his aluminum brain

 

most unheard of since graduation knew many

had long ago departed the favorite only a year

before & yet every face has come back funny

 

or earnest from nine endless months appear-

ing at the heads of rows for the calling of roll

going over a grammar point & making it clear

 

all the lessons can’t recall to save one’s soul

though the bodies retain what he or she wore

all the quirks & tics days they’d lose control

 

on having talked out of turn interrupting more

often unhearing the question too witty to learn

certainly from losers were such a deathly bore

 

remembered now when then would only spurn

not alone the subjects but the way they’d look

fads & make-up meaning the most to undiscern-

 

ing hotshot know-it-alls wouldn’t crack a book

to be so cool education wasted would later say

on the young not ready for the reading of Huck

 

would start again & do it over prepared to pay

attention memorize driest dates work equations

yet can only regret it all on a laser-printed page

English II

 

with the aid of crutches & metallic braces

she’d walk the halls but whenever in class

confined to a wheelchair or sat at her desk

 

issuing the instructions in her husky voice

or declaiming the cobbler’s comedic lines

mender of bad soles surgeon to old shoes

 

though belief in that Key to the Scriptures

had kept her from consulting doctors when

poliomyelitis had attacked her spinal cord

 

a wart on her nose recalls the Graymalkin

scene in Macbeth Act I though was never

a witch even if long graying scraggly hair

 

made her with that growth to look the part

dramatic she was & big on deportment too

had one rule for males to stand up as soon

 

as any female entered the room to remain

standing until the girl or lady should say

please be seated her laughter deep enough

 

it could’ve been heard in any Falstaffian

inn one assignment was to give directions

for reaching one’s home some anecdote of

 

a family sort feeling her to be dead wrong

to disapprove that telling of the phone call

from a man asked to speak with Mr. Olfart

Spanish

 

with all her classes she would ever share

the memory from those days in Mexico

when the dashing caballero serenaded her

 

singing from a street below & sending up

fresh roses filled a bathtub in her pensión

would speak too of & even demonstrated

 

the Mexican hat dance that jarabe tapatío

turning about as her handkerchief twirled

to sounds of the guitar she once had heard

 

when the old maid turned around poked

fun at her romantic illusions unconcerned

with conjugating of any subjunctive verb

 

pronouncing volcanos’ nostalgic names

making the male & female endings agree

placing of accents on the proper vowels

 

what wouldn’t give to chat with her now

in a tongue would come to love as well

& to blend this gringo with a latin blood

 

admit she was right to remember that tub

to wear their colorful embroidered skirts

to have club members selling Xmas cards

 

for a trip in winter over a border’s river

didn’t go after all but had sold the most

demanded the money from generous her

Typing

 

indignant to find any man would teach it

all the student studs elected not to take

a course they said was meant for sissies

 

later to pay for a messy expensive typist

but jeered back then at his potbelly waist

snickered whenever once again he’d stick

 

his hand in the candy machine while those

who signed up & tried to erase a mistake

were always caught as soon as he’d hold

 

yellow sheets to the light & spot the place

where paper was thinner & if any thought

to cut off misspellings he would dig them

 

out of the trash & for such offenses made

to stand in the hall their heads in lockers

one foot in a waste basket till class’d end

 

with gum on noses for those who chewed

carriage returns timed to a record played

his “Blueberry Hill” or “One Mint Julep”

 

he himself cradling & bowing an air violin

tonguing his finger & touching his cheek

to imitate teardrops of girls would plead

 

that he not count off for just one erasure

reduced their speed the racy sort invited

to wear baby dolls at his slumber parties

Geometry

 

seeing classes listed in a printed schedule

for that spring semester dad read it as if

Plain Gloom were being taught by Bible

 

though it wasn’t he sure got the blues riff

part absolutely right with mimeoed notes

on a depressing hypotenuse predated stiff

 

twin compasses of a metaphysical poet’s

simile for the circle of an unaltering love

hating then every angle that tennis coach

 

drew obtuse or acute attempting to prove

theorems of equal to less or greater than

bitter most from how he would only have

 

any patience with cute girls raised a hand

to ask some obvious question later learned

was dismissed for his dating & even chang-

 

ing grades from those a cheerleader earned

good looking he was with a dimpled cheek

his players winning under him most tourn-

 

aments they’d enter but couldn’t compete

with his boys on any clay or asphalt court

yet just by giving of extra points he’d beat

 

them out of the pretty ones not too smart

in the parallelogram triangle or trapezoid

but knew a horizontal line a passing mark

Bible

 

no religious sect the subject of her lectures

even though were studying the King James

version of those old & new holy scriptures

 

now little more than a Job or Ruth remains

a vague proverb of flattery & fury’s snares

spread for neighbors’ feet the child shames

 

dear mother when the unwise father spares

a rod mostly read chronicles of who begets

generations while a wife or concubine bears

 

for sure a beatitude or parable none forgets

mountain sermons to numberless multitudes

criticism of the whispering hidden in closets

 

when the covered’s revealed murder & truth

will out as both Chaucer & his Chauntecleer

knew rooster listened to Pertelote & rued it

 

around that time finding how later literature

could teach the very lessons & never preach

came to prefer Geoffrey’s Canterbury humor

 

to Paul’s epistles filled with their pious peace

that passeth understanding a charity whores

that meek lamby love that constant I beseech

 

ye sinners to follow me flee o ye fornicators

& did that mild lady ever in virtuous dreams

envision this outcome from her sacred course

History

 

her names a quixotic mix of the epic & hick

front teeth protruding a high-collared blouse

the flowery skirts made her a laughing stock

 

as she’d trace Americans by periods & dates

from puritan predestiny through colonial rule

to the killing fields of the war between states

 

on her vacations would visit those battle sites

Vicksburg’s row on row of moss-hung graves

Gettysburg’s gentle hills where Confederates

 

met their match & Abe’s two-minute address

said it forever whereas for hours had to raise

her voice when none would listen her classes

 

subscribing to that weekly Senior Scholastic

at 10 cents each its quizzes on current events

Nasser seizes the Suez Canal polls favor Ike

 

vocabulary words drawn from a Soviet block

offering maps sports import graphs etiquette

tips letters to the editor rating of a latest flick

 

reports on rock & roll rhythms causing riots

on Nobel Prize discoveries on human hearts

thought hers too ancient for having the hots

 

for anyone other than the long buried dead

so amazed to find late in life she’d married

had quit teaching to become a blushing bride

Band

 

his reddish-brown eyes would almost pop out

the whites probably bloodshot from the strain

of glaring when clarinets missed their entrance

 

did he ever learn those tubas changed the name

of Elsa’s Procession to the Cathedral dubbed it

her Outhouse mostly it was the one who threw

 

newspapers before & after classes took revenge

on a couple turned him in for tossing them into

their flower beds by taking a dump in a grocery

 

sack setting it afire leaving it up on their porch

so they’d stamp it out he & his buddies’ tricks

the newest boy’s sousaphone filled with water

 

so surprised when he blew & nothing came out

yet polishing bells with pride before each game

when they’d oompah Sousa’s Washington Post

 

faithfully rehearsing Rossini’s Italian in Algiers

a section from Dvorak’s New World Symphony

in an arrangement made for competing that year

 

all eyes on him when he stepped to the podium

raising his baton for the intricate opening strain

practiced until mistakes had made him threaten

 

not to go to contest the drum major’s pep talk

given with the director out of the room said all

must do their best did & won a lyred-patch #1

Speech

 

her hands small with tiny fingers hanging at ends

of short plump nearly doll-sized arms the wrists

with a deep crease from which she would push

 

continually her pink or light blue sweater sleeves

her narrow shoulders flaked with dandruff snow

her eyes never looking at one but up & fluttering

 

as seated at her desk in high-heeled slings would

not stay up any more than machine-made sleeves

she’d critique any leaning on the lectern allowed

 

no ums or ahs grading a delivery & presentation

by Monroe’s five-step sequence of an attention

getter then need satisfaction visualization action

 

while her favorites on the forensic team sneaked

her keys said were preparing rebuttals backstage

then crawled through the dressing room window

 

while class continued driving her car from school

to the downtown beer joints to shoot some pool

parked returned the keys to her purse as the bell

 

sounded for the period’s end did she ever know

maybe all along let them get away with murder

preferred they learn enunciation to debate either

 

side to affirm or deny study the issues & argue

the case a trophy won basic steps remembered

can these make up for showing so little respect

Algebra

 

on looking back it doesn’t seem to mean a thing

yet its parenthetical numerals letters in brackets

two minuses make a plus equal a kind of swing

 

when at the end an answer to a problem checks

whether one likes reuniting broken bits depends

mostly on who conducts the class if all business

 

the way she was it can make a fateful difference

especially when no humor is added to the math

not being assigned the best & brightest students

 

as her colleague was made her resentful perhaps

honor society membership canceled by a lower

grade from absences on debate & orchestra trips

 

of which she disapproved was among her sorer

points so took some off turned B to negative C

but for figuring it out requires a mind far more

 

adept than one can only solve for X dividing 3

by 5 & 6 to place a decimal on the proper side

multiplying numerators whose equation’s a key

 

to explain the wholes of fractional parts decide

whether subtracting will give a greater amount

complex compound or common still mystified

 

by its being the basis of sound & can account

for every living thing except of course for her

who computed a number that really did count

 

English III

 

next to last of the dozen years short or long

depending on the point of view the teachers

taken he the first in a field looked to belong

 

exclusively to the second sex with features

& voices made literature too girlish for boys

his first year & time for ushering preachers

 

in from Boston’s puritanical line the ahoys

of voyages after the godlike whale now back

to a Cotton Mather who compared to sauce

 

Homer’s epic heroes an Iliad’s Achilles lack-

ing in Christian virtues true food for thought

but can’t recall reading any powers of black-

 

ness nor was “Song of Myself” ever taught

not until college scanning subversive Leaves

as he of a hillbilly appellation would exploit

 

his classes having them prepare for speeches

up on stage sawing & hammering set designs

for Arsenic & Old Lace or his Angel Street’s

 

student production while Miss Dickinson’s

enigmas didn’t amaze Walt’s barbaric yawp

remained undeclared as a Dimmesdale’s sins

 

yet in between painting of scenery & prop

assigned “Old Ironsides” “Concord Hymn”

the first poems to make one’s heart to stop

Orchestra & Stage Band

 

was famous for his mercurial Irish moods

slamming down in disgust a stubby baton

on the stenciled music stand when woods

 

or strings missed his cue not coming in on

time but then on retuning a violin he’d tell

an anecdote a joke on himself the passion

 

subdued yet to rise again all knew so well

followed by the deep regret endeared him

if not to all those placed him on a pedestal

 

for sounds he brought to life a Beethoven

1st Gershwin’s Parisian horns Diz & Bird

for buying Rugolo’s Adventures in Rhythm

 

with school system funds swing unheard

until he left his St. Louis home with bop

in tow scatting notes spreading the word

 

of syncopation rehearsing for a sock hop

Saturday nite though stock arrangements

like “Jersey Bounce” a far cry from pop

 

tune rock by a swiveling pelvis students

idolized even with dance sinful in a Bible

belt his drinking only a superintendent’s

 

enlightened view defended against a libel

would’ve had him fired who improvised

on sax blew the mind to jazz & classical

 

Biology

 

not an elective but a requirement to graduate

or who would have chosen to take from him

a course with a title warned you'll regurgitate

 

from dissected frogs dots on monarch wings

protect it from blue jays eat & find it bitter

but on looking through his microscope lens

 

could never see a thing just left one wonder-

ing if even with thickest glasses he ever saw

those colored labels for stirrup anvil hammer

 

of the ear whose cochleal tubing had to draw

apathetic to which canal led where had rather

hear & play beguine notes like an Artie Shaw

 

than know if near or farsighted didn’t matter

not at all only wanted eye-hand coordination

to read & perform the parts for second chair

 

can’t remember if he taught equine evolution

from three-toed into a single hoof or thought

Darwin mistaken & held to a special creation

 

by then science knew the DNA if he brought

it up tested spelling enzyme & chromosome

don’t recall just phoning of neighbors’ daugh-

 

ters for Saturday dates later the senior prom

struggled to adapt make the natural selection

be different with all cells of the same system

Creative Writing

 

her honors classes reserved for talented types

not being one missed out on the inspiring fun

of her course in the fabrication of poetic lives

 

tracing the piney woods prosaic existence one

was living then & like the others giving the lie

to every prayer & profession of a regular Sun-

 

day attendance could only glimpse her manly

walk her legs wide apart & somewhat bowed

her glasses hanging below her bosom held by

 

a chain or ribbon her hairdo not at all in vogue

her voice a little gruff but never heard it speak

of how to shape the story find a rhyme for fog

 

recount the tale of boomtown life in Sour Lake

Saratoga or her native Batson where she lived

& commuted from its scum once called a freak

 

of nature when it bubbled flared cured arthritis

drew a lawless crew of roustabouts & wildcat

speculators read her ’43 thesis on aeronautics

 

in secondary schools to train the air-age pilot

against the Nazi threat by means of Daedalus

Icarus & Pegasus dreams of a DaVincian flight

 

learning if late a vocabulary of radio compass

de-icing diving physiological effects of flying

with it & her camping essay literary calculus

English IV

 

like the Wife of Bath in Chaucer’s prologue

whose opening verse paragraph memorized

with its rhyming couplets & London brogue

 

she too was gat-toothed who said it signified

lecherousness but couldn’t conceive it in her

so tall overbearing & never even tried to hide

 

a wart visible in the v of suede or calf leather

pump watched it as she’d read another sonnet

or a Grecian ode more fascinating than either

 

as she’d drone on followed her foot saw it fit

right in that v better than poets can fill a form

the best assignment she ever gave was to write

 

an essay on any theme & so this schoolmarm

got a dissertation on snuff after Lamb’s roast

pig which unlike a man is good in every part

 

but of course she found sniffing tobacco most

unacceptable as a subject for an English class

& deducted points for clearly having grossed

 

her out then book reports due if hoped to pass

when asked if half a 1000-page novel’d count

since time was running out replied in her sass-

 

y way you will flunk out of college & amount

to nothing & the shoe did fit but luckily saved

by majoring in lit of many a blessing the fount

 

 

what a trip to return to the time of resentment

acne puppy love petty fears lessons forgotten

so many never learned when most were meant

 

to protect & lead or steer one to or away from

naïveté not being aware of all there was to live

for without or with the much was yet to come

 

to keep the mind & options open never to give

up on others or on one’s self or less than one’s

best effort in every test trial tribulation even if

 

no grade’s assigned or no award is granted once

the task is done the paper completed the course

finished when nothing is ever over only a dunce

 

would think a past will not catch up & reinforce

the laws & lessons one thought to have left back

there with those believed too dull & slow hoarse

 

from repeating that same insistent stupid didac-

tic stuff about not plagiarizing taking good notes

staying up with the reading & not being a slack-

 

er all their sagest counsel ignored in sowing oats

but oh what fun to sneer & feel superior to each

& everyone or at least those seeming to be most

 

out of tune with a hit parade could always teach

more than all their textbooks adopted by a dumb

committee not one of which dared to eat a peach