As summer ends I dream exponentially

about being in front of the classroom teaching

disgruntled kids who want to be there

even less than I do.  Late August and the long

endless semester stretches in front of us promising

to deliver only what we know

we don’t want: students lost in their own worlds

looking down, fingers flying, in the hallways, in the classroom.

Hall monitors slouched against the perimeter, themselves lost

not seeing or caring

about what is before them.