Fifth-Grade Assessment

 

Mr. Kramer hoaxed us into believing,

When he said a meteor would hit tonight.

 

Would crush our moms, kill our dogs, burn our houses.

Jara cried; rest just stared

At the daydreaming spot he colored on the board

A few months earlier

When the world was small, suburban andsafe.

 

But it was a prompt for writing; not praying.

 

We knew War of the Worlds was a book,

Not our lives.

Just a radio show, sounding real,

Not our father’s fears—

 

So we had none,

Nor recognition

When the wall crumbled in Berlin that next month

A world away.

 

We didn’t wince when that student stared at a tank

Until he was a spot colored on the squared.

 

And when the towers turned to smoke and soot

Just blocks from my old apartment

I thought Mr. Kramer was up to it again.

 

When the dust turned daylight black,

I called Jara.

She thought it was a hoax, too.