Sidestepping The Classroom Slide Shows

side stepping the classroom slide shows
of the new New World's Fair.
the bouquets made from kleenex and

green pipe cleaners.
I read the fairest of the fair

again
shattering the mirrors,
old records

tracking us
like birds in
all our future migrations,

they warned.
we played fruit basket turn over,
musical chairs; happy with the

pineapple upside down cake.

and where can you hide from questions
you don't recognize?
in the closet with the school supplies?

I'll improvise with crayons
another way out:slipping from the monkey bars
after the third rung;

making something tacky
out of construction paper
to take home.

where I'll be glad on Christmas vacations
ever after.
though no tunes swell from the crimson

crepe paper bells

hung from the rafters
for the hurricane parties.

and I'm not the class hall monitor
and I'm not anything at all;
too small in the yearbook pictures

not to be in the front row
ringing the glass bells

dreaming of snowfalls
deflecting paperwads
and smirks

and whatever it is that lurks
distracting you from finishing
the Classics.

but
read on, my friend.
despite the caterwauling

from the cafeteria
coteries of the cotillioned
you hear still;

take the game of Let's Pretend
out in the world with you
in your pale cutwork dress,

in love with the Spring air
and half remembered madrigals.
you're going to need it out there.

mary angela douglas 30 october 2015